Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Translator
Web

ANACONDA

 - 5 dictionary results

an⋅a⋅con⋅da

[an-uh-kon-duh]
–noun
1. a South American boa, Eunectes murinus, that often grows to a length of more than 25 ft. (7.6 m).
2. any large boa.
3. Cards. a variety of poker in which each player is dealt seven cards, discards two, and turns up one of the remaining five before each betting round.

Origin:
1760–70; misapplication of a name orig. used for a snake of Sri Lanka; earlier anacandaia < Sinhalese henakandayā kind of snake

An⋅a⋅con⋅da

[an-uh-kon-duh]
–noun
a city in SW Montana. 12,518.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To ANACONDA
an·a·con·da   (ān'ə-kŏn'də)   
n.  Either of two nonvenomous, semiaquatic snakes (Eunectes murinus or E. noteus) of tropical South America that kill their prey by suffocating it in their coils. E. murinus, the giant anaconda, can attain lengths from 5 to 9 meters (16.4 to 29.5 feet).

[Perhaps alteration of Sinhalese henakandayā, whip snake.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

anaconda 
1768, probably a Latinization of Sinhalese henacandaya "whip snake," lit. "lightning-stem." A name first used in Eng. to name a Ceylonese python, it erroneously was applied to a large S.Amer. boa, called in Brazil sucuriuba. The word is of uncertain origin, and no snake name like it now is found in Sinhalese or Tamil. Another suggestion is that it represents Tamil anaikkonda "having killed an elephant."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Encyclopedia

Anaconda

city, seat (since 1977) of Anaconda-Deer Lodge county, southwestern Montana, U.S., 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Butte. Laid out in 1883 as Copperopolis by Marcus Daly, founder of Montana's copper industry, the settlement was the seat of Deer Lodge county. In 1977 the governments of Anaconda and Deer Lodge county were consolidated. The city grew rapidly after 1884, when Daly built a copper smelter on nearby Warm Springs Creek. Daly's plant became one of the world's largest nonferrous and reduction works, and its 585-foot (178-metre) smokestack dominates the landscape. The city was incorporated in 1888 and was renamed Anaconda, after Daly's mining camp in Butte, to avoid confusion with Copperopolis in Meagher county. Daly, who had hoped to make Anaconda the state capital, built one of the most ornate hotels in the nation-the Hotel Marcus Daly-there. His newspaper, the Anaconda Standard, had a plant as modern as any in New York City at the time, though it had a readership of only a few thousand.

Learn more about Anaconda with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see ANACONDA on Thesaurus | Reference
FacebookTwitterFollow us: