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語源

From 中期英語 cocatrice, from Old French cocatriz (“basilisk, cockatrice”), from Late Latin calcātrīx (“female trampler, treader”), from Latin calcāre (“to trample, to walk upon, to oppress”) + -trīx (“-ess: forming feminine agentives”), from calx (“heel”). Its eventual association with poultry influenced by cock (“rooster, male chicken”), q.v.

発音

• IPA: /ˈkɒkətɹaɪs/, /ˈkɒkətɹɪs/

名詞

cockatrice (plural cockatrices)

1. (mythology, obsolete) Synonym of basilisk, a serpentine dragon so poisonous that even its gaze is deadly. [14th c.]
   • a. 1382, Wycliffe's Bible (MS Douce 369), Psalms 90:13:

     Vp on the eddere and the kokatrice thou shalt go

2. (mythology, folklore, fantasy) A monster with a lethal gaze or breath, originally believed to originate from a cock egg brooded over by a snake or toad, later specifically combining serpentine and landfowl features and particularly (heraldry) a rooster-headed wyvern.

   Synonym: basilicock

   Hypernym: chimera

   • a. 1398, John Trevisa, transl. Bartholomeus Anglicus as De Proprietatibus Rerum (MS BL Add. 27944), Vol. I, p. 628:

     A forlyued cok leiþ eiren in his laste elde... and ȝif any venemous worme sittiþ on broode þerevppon in þe canyculer dayes, þerof is igendrid... a cocatrice.

   • 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.”

3. (obsolete) Synonym of crocodile. [15th c.]
4. (archaic, derogatory) An evil, deceitful, or destructive person. [16th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:villain, Thesaurus:betrayer, Thesaurus:jerk, Thesaurus:shrew

   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

     ... this little cockatrice of a king ...

   • 2002 May 5, Lee Goldberg & al., "Murder Is Corny", Nero Wolfe:

     I have intruded because this situation is intolerable. You are either a poisonous cockatrice or a witling, and you have brought Mr. Goodwin to a desperate pass.

5. (archaic, derogatory) Synonym of whore, a female prostitute, a sexually promiscuous woman. [16th c.]

下位語

• (legendary creature): henatrice, chickatrice

派生語

参考

• cockentrice

参照

• “cockatrice, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.