wyvern

English

A wyvern

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

enPR: wī'və(r)n, wĭ'və(r)n, wē'və(r)n, IPA^(key): /ˈwaɪvə(ɹ)n/, /ˈwɪvə(ɹ)n/, /ˈwiːvə(ɹ)n/
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Rhymes: -aɪvə(ɹ)n, -ɪvə(ɹ)n, -iːvə(ɹ)n

wyvern (plural wyverns)

(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. […], volumes (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.

mythical dragon-like creature