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noun
a legendary monster with a man's head, horns, a lion's body, and the tail of a dragon or, sometimes, a scorpion.
Origin:
1300–50; Middle English < Latin mantichōrās < Greek, erroneous reading for martichṓras < Iranian; compare Old Persian martiya- man, Avestan xvar- devour, Persian mardom-khar < man-eating; probably ultimately alluding to the tiger, once common in the Caspian Sea region
1300–50; Middle English < Latin mantichōrās < Greek, erroneous reading for martichṓras < Iranian; compare Old Persian martiya- man, Avestan xvar- devour, Persian mardom-khar < man-eating; probably ultimately alluding to the tiger, once common in the Caspian Sea region
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Manticore
is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
Collins
World English Dictionary
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
manticore
c.1300, from L. manticora, from Gk. mantikhoras, corruption of martikhoras, said to be from an O.Pers. word for "man eater," cf. martiya- "man" + root of khvar- "to eat." Fabulous monster with the body of a lion, head of a man, porcupine quills, and tail or sting of a scorpion.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia
manticore
a legendary animal having the head of a man (often with horns), the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion. The earliest Greek report of the creature is probably a greatly distorted description of the Caspian tiger, a hypothesis that accords well with the presumed source of the Greek word, an Old Iranian compound meaning "man-eater." Medieval writers used the manticore as a symbol of the devil. In Canadian author Robertson Davies's The Manticore (1972), the protagonist dreams of a sibyl leading a manticore and examines his dream under Jungian analysis
Learn more about manticore with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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