Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Wivern"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Wiver \Wiv"er\, Wivern \Wiv"ern\, n. [OE. wivere a serpent, OF.
wivre, guivre, F. givre, guivre, wiver, from L. vipera;
probably influenced by OHG. wipera, from the Latin. See
{Viper}, and cf. {Weever}.]
1. (Her.) A fabulous two-legged, winged creature, like a
cockatrice, but having the head of a dragon, and without
spurs. [Written also {wyvern}.]
The jargon of heraldry, its griffins, its mold
warps, its wiverns, and its dragons. --Sir W.
Scott.
2. (Zo["o]l.) The weever.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
wivern
n : a fire-breathing dragon used in medieval heraldry; had the
head of a dragon and the tail of a snake and a body with
wings and two legs [syn: {wyvern}]
Additional Hypertext Webster Gateway Lookup
Gateway by dict@stokkie.net
stock only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents;
see the Webster Gateway FAQ,
and also the Back-end/database links and credits.