英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

serpent [serpent 词源字典]: serpent: [14] The serpent is etymologically a ‘crawling’ animal. The word comes via Old French serpent from Latin serpēns, a noun use of the present participle of serpere ‘crawl, creep’. This was a close relative of Greek hérpein ‘creep’, from which English gets herpes [17] (etymologically the ‘creeping’ disease) and herpetology ‘study of reptiles’ [19].
=> herpes[serpent etymology, serpent origin, 英语词源]
snake: snake: [OE] The snake, like the serpent (and indeed the snail) is etymologically the ‘crawling’ animal. Along with Swedish snok and Danish snog, it comes from a prehistoric Germanic base denoting ‘crawl’, which also produced English snail and German dialect schnaacken ‘crawl’.
=> snail
crawl (v.): c. 1200, creulen, from a Scandinavian source, perhaps Old Norse krafla "to claw (one's way)," Danish kravle, from the same root as crab (n.1). If there was an Old English *craflian, it has not been recorded. Related: Crawled; crawling.
crawl (n.): 1818, from crawl (v.); in the swimming sense from 1903, the stroke developed by Frederick Cavill, well-known English swimmer who emigrated to Australia and modified the standard stroke of the day after observing South Seas islanders. So called because the swimmer's motion in the water resembles crawling.
formicant (adj.): "crawling like an ant," 1707, from Latin formicantem (nominative formicans), present participle of formicare (see formication).
formication (n.): crawling sensation as of ants on the skin, 1707, from Latin formicationem (nominative formicatio), noun of action from formicare "to crawl like ants," from formica "ant" (see Formica (n.2)).
millipede (n.): also millepede, c. 1600, from Latin millepeda "wood louse," a type of crawling insect, from mille "thousand" (see million) + pes (genitive pedis) "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)). Probably a loan-translation of Greek chiliopous.
reptile (n.): late 14c., "creeping or crawling animal," from Old French reptile (early 14c.) and directly from Late Latin reptile, noun use of neuter of reptilis (adj.) "creping, crawling," from rept-, past participle stem of repere "to crawl, creep," from PIE root *rep- "to creep, crawl" (cognates: Lithuanian replioju "to creep"). Used of persons of low character from 1749.

Precise scientific use began to develop mid-18c., but the word was used as well at first of animals now known as amphibians, including toads, frogs, salamanders; separation of Reptilia (1835 as a distinct class) and Amphibia took place early 19c.; popular use lagged, and reptile still was used late 18c. with sense "An animal that creeps upon many feet" [Johnson, who calls the scorpion a reptile], sometimes excluding serpents.
And the terrestrial animals may be divided into quadrupeds or beasts, reptiles, which have many feet, and serpents, which have no feet at all. [Locke, "Elements of Natural Philosophy," 1689]

An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at ev'ning in the public path ;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
[Cowper, "The Task," 1785]
The Old English word for "reptile" was slincend, related to slink.
scrawl (v.): 1610s, "write or draw untidily," of uncertain origin, perhaps from Middle English scrawlen "spread out the limbs, sprawl" (early 15c.), which possibly is an alteration of sprawlen (see sprawl (v.)) or crawl (v.). Related: Scrawled; scrawling. The noun is recorded from 1690s, from the verb. Meaning "bad handwriting" is from 1710.
reptant: "(Of an animal) moving with a creeping or crawling action", Mid 17th century: from Latin reptant-, from the verb reptare 'to creep'.