different between wyvern vs cockatrice

English

Alternative forms

• wivern
• wiver

Etymology

Alteration of Middle English wyver (“viper”), borrowed from Old Northern French wivre, from Latin v?pera (“viper; snake, serpent”). Doublet of weever and viper.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?'v?(r)n, w?'v?(r)n, IPA^(key): /?wa?v?(?)n/, /?w?v?(?)n/
• Rhymes: -a?v?(?)n, -?v?(?)n

Noun

wyvern (plural wyverns)

1. (heraldry, mythology, fantasy) A draconian creature possessing wings, only two legs and usually a barbed tail.
   • 1940-54 The Collected Poetry of Malcolm Lowry, "WE SIT UNHACKLED DRUNK AND MAD TO EDIT", UBC Press,1992, p.222:

     Notions of freedom are tied up in drink / Our ideal life contains a tavern / Where man may sit and talk of or just think / All without fear of the nighted wyvern, / Or yet another tavern where it appears.

Translations

See also

• dragon
• drake
• wyrm

English

Etymology

First attested 1382 as Middle English cocatrice (“basilisk”), from Old French cocatriz, from Late Latin calc?tr?x (“she who treads upon something”), from Latin calc? (“tread”), from calx (“heel, hoof”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?k?tra?s/, /?k?k?tr?s/

Noun

cockatrice (plural cockatrices)

1. (mythology) A legendary creature about the size and shape of a dragon or wyvern, but in appearance resembling a giant rooster, with some lizard-like characteristics.

   Coordinate terms: basilisk, wyvern

   Hypernym: chimera

   • c. 1910, Joseph Walker McSpadden, The Spell of Egypt

     “Peace reigns in happy Luxor. The lion lies down with the lamb, and the child, if it will, may harmlessly put its hand into the cockatrice’s den.”

2. (obsolete) Mistress, harlot.
3. (fantasy, folklore) A snake or serpent that appears to be hatched of a rooster, or cock's, egg.
4. (speculated) The cobra. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. (obsolete, figuratively) Any venomous or deadly thing.

Translations

Further reading

• cockatrice on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• For meaning "mistress": 1949, John Dover Wilson (compiler), Life in Shakespeare's England. A Book of Elizabethan Prose, Cambridge at the University Press. 1st ed. 1911, 2nd ed. 1913, 8th reprint. In Glossary and Notes
• For meaning "a snake of a chicken's egg:" 1828, Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English language.
• For "cobra:" an article, “Cockatrice” or “Adder” in Isaiah 11:8 et al.?