wyvern

English

A wyvern

Alternative forms

• wivern, wiver, wyver

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: wī'və(r)n, wĭ'və(r)n, wē'və(r)n, IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪvə(ɹ)n/, /ˈwɪvə(ɹ)n/, /ˈwiːvə(ɹ)n/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)n, -ɪvə(ɹ)n, -iːvə(ɹ)n

Noun

wyvern (plural wyverns)

1. (heraldry, mythology, fantasy) A draconian creature possessing wings, only two legs and usually a barbed tail.
   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     The jargon of heraldry, its griffins, its moldwarps, its wyverns, and its dragons.

   • 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

mythical dragon-like creature

• Bulgarian: виверн (vivern)
• Catalan: víbria f, vibra (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雙足龍 / 双足龙 (shuāngzúfēilóng)

• Czech: wyverna f
• Danish: lindorm c
• Dutch: wyvern
• Esperanto: (dukrura) drako, viverno
• Finnish: traakki (fi)
• French: vouivre (fr) f, guivre (fr) f
• Galician: coca (gl) f
• German: Lindwurm (de) m
• Irish: vuibhearn m
• Italian: viverna f
• Japanese: 飛竜 (ja) (ひりゅう, hiryū), ワイバーン (ja) (waibān)
• Korean: 와이번 (waibeon)
• Marathi: वाय्व्हर्न m (vāyvharna)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: linnorm m

  Nynorsk: linnorm m

• Polish: wiwern m, wiwerna f, wywerna f
• Portuguese: serpe (pt) f, guivra
• Russian: виверн m (vivern), виверна (ru) f (viverna)
• Spanish: dragón alado m, guiverno (es) m
• Swedish: lindorm (sv) c

See also

• wyvern on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dragon
• drake
• lindworm
• wyrm