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cockatrices

 - 3 dictionary results

cock⋅a⋅trice

  [kok-uh-tris]
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–noun
1. a legendary monster with a deadly glance, supposedly hatched by a serpent from the egg of a cock, and commonly represented with the head, legs, and wings of a cock and the body and tail of a serpent. Compare basilisk (def. 1).
2. a venomous serpent. Isa. 11:8.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME cocatrice < MF cocatris < ML caucātrīces (pl.), L *calcātrīx (see -trix ), fem. of *calcātor tracker, equiv. to calcā(re) to tread, v. deriv. of calx heel + -tor -tor; rendering Gk ichneúmon ichneumon
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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cock·a·trice   (kŏk'ə-trĭs, -trīs')   
n.   Mythology
A serpent hatched from a cock's egg and having the power to kill by its glance.

[Middle English cocatrice, basilisk, from Old French cocatris, from Medieval Latin cocātrīx, cocātrīc-, possibly alteration of calcātrīx (translation of Greek ikhneumōn, tracker), from Latin calcāre, to track, from calx, calc-, heel.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

cockatrice 
1382, from O.Fr. cocatris, altered by influence of coq from L.L. *calcatrix, from L. calcare "to tread" (calx "heel"), as translation of Gk. ikhneumon, lit. "tracker, tracer." In classical writings, an Egyptian animal of some sort, the mortal enemy of the crocodile, which it tracks down and kills. This vague sense became hopelessly confused in the Christian West, and in England the word ended up applied to the equivalent of the basilisk (q.v.). A serpent hatched from a cock's egg, it was fabled to kill by its glance and could only be slain by tricking it into seeing its own reflection. Belief in them persisted even among the educated because the word was used in the KJV several times to translate a Heb. word for "serpent." In heraldry, half cock, half serpent. Identified variously with the basilisk and the crocodile.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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