Also 6 vyper, vypar, veper. [a. OF. vipere, vipre (mod.F. vipère, = Pr. vipera, vipra, vibra fem., vibre masc., Sp. and Pg. vibora, It. vipera) or ad. L. vīpera viper, snake, serpent, contracted from vīvi-pera, f. vīvus alive, living, and parĕre to bring forth. See also WIVER.]
1. The small ovo-viviparous snake Pelias berus (formerly Coluber berus or Vipera communis), abundant in Europe and the only venomous snake found in Great Britain; the adder; in general use, any venomous, dangerous or repulsive snake or serpent.
The flesh of the viper was formerly regarded as possessing great nutritive or restorative properties, and was frequently used medicinally.
1526. Tindale, Acts xxviii. 3. When Paul had gaddered a boundle of stickes, And putt them into the fyre, a viper (be cause off the heet) creept out.
1545. Brinklow, Lament., 116. The vypar aboue all other … serpentes is most fullest of poyson.
1551. Turner, Herbal (1568), I. B v. Garlyke … helpeth the bytyng of a veper.
1583. Greene, Mamillia, i. Wks. (Grosart), II. 74. The Elephant being enuenomed with the Viper, eateth him vp, and is healed.
1616. Bullokar, Eng. Expos., Viper, a venemous serpent in some hot countries lying much in the earth, hauing a short taile, which grateth and maketh a noise as he goeth.
1634. Peacham, Compl. Gentl. (ed. 2), xii. 109. Some mortals also are knowne by their cognisances, as … Cleopatra by a viper.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 629. With that rank Odour from thy Dwelling-place To drive the Viper’s Brood, and all the venom’d Race.
1750. trans. Leonardus’ Mirr. Stones, 65. The proper virtue of the Sicilian is, to subdue the poison of vipers.
1769. Pennant, Brit. Zool., III. 17. Vipers are found in many parts of this island.
1805. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (ed. 3), III. 95. The Viper is the only one, either of the Reptile or Serpent tribes, in Great Britain, from whose bite we have any thing to fear.
1857. Borrow, Romany Rye, App. ix. The duty of the true critic is to play the part of a leech, and not of a viper.
transf. and fig. 1535. Joye, Apol. Tindale, 24. Ar not these the venomouse tethe of vepers that thus gnawe a nother mannis name?
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 193. These blind and swalowyng sandes, the Spaniardes caule Vypers: And that by good reason, bycause in them many shyppes are entangled.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. i. 145. Hot bloud, hot thoughts, and hot deedes, why they are Vipers, is Loue a generation of Vipers?
1713. Waterland, Serm. Assizes Cambr., 13. Special care therefore must be taken to find out this lurking Viper [sc. pride] in our Bosoms, and to cast it far from us.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxvii. Then comes remorse, with all its vipers, mixed with vain regrets for the past.
b. Zool. Applied with distinguishing terms to other species of the genus Vipera, the sub-order Viperina, or snakes resembling the common viper.
For horned, pit, red, sand, water, yellow viper, see those terms.
1736. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXIX. 254. Vipera fusca: the brown Viper in Virginia. In Carolina it is called the Truncheon-Snake.
1743. Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina (1771), II. 44. The Black Viper … is short and thick, of slow motion. Ibid., 45. The Brown Viper … is … in length about two feet, and large in proportion.
1778. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), III. 2096/1. The Vipera, or common viper of the shops…. It is a native of Egypt, and other warm countries.
1802. Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. II. 377. Egyptian Viper. Ibid., 382. Swedish Viper.
1834. H. M’Murtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 185. Vip[era] brachyura, Cuv. (The Minute Viper.)
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 347/2. Variegated Viper—that described by Mr. Bell from Hornsey Wood.
1845. Encycl. Metrop., XXV. 1099–1101 [Various species].
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. V. i. 250. The Vipera Berus (Daud) or Small Viper (Coluber Ammodytes, Linn.).
1881. Nose-horned viper [see VIPERLING].
c. Zool. One or other of the snakes belonging to the genus Vipera, of which the common viper is the type, or to the family Viperidæ.
The vipers were formerly classified (following Linnæus) under the order Coluber, from which they are now separated (cf. quot. 1834). The Viperidæ form one of the four families into which the suborder Viperina (or Solenoglypha) is now divided.
1802. Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. II. 364. The species [of Coluber] differ greatly in size and habit, according to their respective tribes; some, as the Vipers, having large, flattish, and subcordate heads, with rather short than long bodies and tails.
1834. H. M’Murtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 185. The vipers, most of which were confounded with the Colubers by Linnæus, on account of their double sub-caudal plates, require to be separated from them from the circumstance of their having poisonous fangs.
c. 1882. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 311. The Vipers (Viperidæ) … have a large broad head, a vertical and long pupil in the eye, and the top of the head is covered with very little plates and scales.
2. fig. A venomous, malignant, or spiteful person; a villain or scoundrel.
In some quots. the influence of sense 3 or 3 b is perceptible.
[1526. Tindale, Matt. iii. 7. He sayde vnto them: O generacion of vipers, who hath taught you to fle from the vengeaunce to come?]
1591. Greene, Conny Catch., Wks. (Grosart), X. 39. These villanous vipers, vnworthy the name of men, base roagues,… being outcasts from God, vipers of the world.
1607. Shaks., Cor., III. i. 265. Where is this Viper, That would depopulate the city, & be euery man himself?
1613. J. Taylor (Water P.), Watermen’s Suit, Wks. (1630), 173. I will regard such Vipers and their slander so little, that their malice [etc.].
1642–4. Vicars, God in Mount (1844), 149. That most mischievous Viper of our Church & State too, Mathew Wren Bp. of Elie.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, VI. 836. I (she confesses) in the Fact was caught; Two Sons dispatching, at one deadly Draught. What Two, Two Sons, thou Viper, in one day?
1819. Shelley, Cenci, I. iii. 165. Cenci (to Beatrice). Thou painted viper! Beast that thou art! Fair and yet terrible!
1832. Warren, Diary Late Physic., II. ii. 88. ‘Cannot this infamous scoundrel be brought to justice?’ I inquired. ‘If he were, he may prove, perhaps, not worth powder and shot, the viper!’
1846. Mrs. A. Marsh, Father Darcy, II. iv. 85. ‘What a generation of vipers!’ thought he, ‘what a hydra brood of oppressors!’
1850. Marsden, Early Purit. (1853), 403. The seditious carriage of some vipers of the lower house.
3. In other figurative or allusive uses: † a. In allusion to the supposition that the female viper was killed by her young eating their way out at birth. Obs.
Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist., X. lxii. 82.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, V. iii. Out viper, thou that eat’st thy parents, hence!
1608. Shaks., Per., I. i. 64. I am no viper, yet I feed On mother’s flesh which did me breed.
b. In allusion to the fable of the viper reared or revived in a person’s bosom: One who betrays or is false to those who have supported or nourished him; a false or treacherous person. Cf. SNAKE sb. 2 a.
Partly after the similar L. uses, in sinu viperam habere (Cicero) and viperam nutricare sub ala (Petronius).
1596. Edward III., I. i. 105. Degenerate Traytor, viper to the place Where thou was fostred in thine infancy.
a. 1688. Bp. S. Parker, in H. Coleridge, North Worthies (1852), I. 68. Tenderness and indulgence to such men were to nourish vipers in our bowels.
1689. Muses Farew. to Popery, 28. Ev’n thy Royal Patron was not spar’d … O strange return to a forgiving King, But the warm’d Viper wears the greatest Sting.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XVIII. viii. He is the brother of that wicked viper which I have so long nourished in my bosom.
1821–2. Shelley, Chas. I., II. 214. Mark the consequence of warming This brood of northern vipers in your bosom.
1911. Riker, Henry Fox 1st Ld. Holland, I. iii. 164. The Newcastles had been in terror lest they had raised a viper in their midst.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. Comb., as viper-curled, -haunted, -healed, -mouthed, -nourished adjs.; viper-catcher, -hunter, -hunting.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, III. xi. 26. Our verse great Tityus a huge space out-spreads, And giues the viper curled Dogge three heads.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 526. If it happen that … any man chaunce to light vpon these Viper-nourished blinde-Dormise.
1702. R. Mead, Poisons, 29. Our Viper-Catchers have a Remedy,… in which They do place … great Confidence.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 199. The seeming rashness of one Tozzi, a viper-catcher.
1802. Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. II. 465. Viper-headed snake. Coluber Viperinus. Ibid. (1804), V. I. 120. Viper-mouthed Pike. Esox Stomias.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 349/1. In England these reptiles were caught with a cleft or forked stick, which the viper-catcher drove down immediately behind the head.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, iv. When a person is timid in viper-hunting he had better leave off. Ibid. Besides being a viper-hunter, I am what they call a herbalist.
1904. W. M. Gallichan, Fishing Spain, 102. These viper-haunted spots.
b. Simple attrib., as viper bite, fat, flesh, group, kind, oil, spirit, virus.
1721. Bailey, Viperous, of the Viper kind or belonging to Adders.
1754. Bartlet, Gentlem. Farriery, Index, Viper bite, how to be treated.
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 199. Viper oil or fat, which shou’d be fresh, is a sovereign remedy against the stinging of bees … and other venomous insects.
1776. G. White, Selborne, 29 April. This little fry [of fifteen vipers] issued into the world with the true viper spirit about them.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 349/1. Pliny, Galen, and others praise the efficacy of viper flesh in the cure of ulcers [etc.].
1870. Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Reptiles & Birds, ii. 88. Such are the terrible weapons of the Viper group.
1891. [D. Jordan] (‘Son of Marshes’), On Surrey Hills, 61. Viper-oil—adder-ile—you would find in all the woodmen’s cottages.
1894. Daily News, 8 Feb., 5/4. By heating some viper virus at a temperature of 85 degrees Centigrade.
c. With intensive force (passing in later use into adj.), = Venomous, extremely bitter, viperous.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. 95. York and Lancaster, Ambitious broachers of that Viper-War. Ibid. (1605), Sonn. Late Peace, xxviii. All the tempests of our Viper-Warre.
1788. Burns, Poet’s Progr., 30. Viper-critics cureless venom dart.
1876. Sir E. M. Thompson, Chron. A. de Usk, 221. The viper race of Lombardy, split up into Guelphs and Ghibellines.
1899. Beatrice Harraden, Fowler, 75. I can’t abide the little viper man. Ibid., 83. He don’t like that little viper gentleman any more than I.
5. Special combs., as viper-broth, broth made from vipers, or in which a viper has been boiled, formerly supposed to possess nutritive or invigorating properties; viper-fish, a deep-sea fish of the family Chauliodontidæ, esp. Chauliodus sloani (Cent. Dict., 1891); viper-gourd, an East Indian climbing gourd, Trichosanthes colubrina, remarkable for its ugliness (Treas. Bot., 1866); viper-grass, = viper’s grass; also attrib.; viper-jelly (cf. viper-broth); † viper-mouth (see quot. and cf. viper-fish above); † viper-stone, = SERPENTINE sb. 3; viper-weever, the lesser weever, Trachinus vipera; viper-wine, wine medicated by an extract or decoction obtained from vipers, formerly drunk on account of its supposed restorative or vitalizing properties; † viper-worm, = VIPER 1.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 327. Hunted Venison, Stale Meats, *Viper Broths, or Wine.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc., I. 509. Viper-broth is both anti-acid and nourishing.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 349/1. The lingering belief in the wonderfully invigorating qualities of ‘viper broth’ is not yet quite extinct in some places.
1656. J. Smith, Pract. Physick, 238. Topicals must be Specifical Resolvers, as *Viper-grasse.
1711. C. Cleve, trans. Cowley’s Plants, III. C.’s Wks. III. 347. Viper-grass, full of a milky Juice Good against Poison.
1757. A. Cooper, Distiller, III. xv. (1760), 170. Of Viper-grass ten Ounces.
1771. Encycl. Brit., III. 102/2. A decoction made of barley,… viper-grass root, and liquorice.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 232. Wall Viper-grass. Ibid. Common Viper-grass.
1863. Prior, Brit. Pl., 234. Viper-grass,… Scorzonera edulis.
1702. R. Mead, Poisons, 34. The Patient ought to eat frequently of *Viper Gelly; or Broth.
1743. Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina (1771), II. 119. Vipera Marina, the *Viper-Mouth. This Fish is eighteen inches in length.
1738. Phil. Trans., XL. 442. Speaking of the Serpentine or *Viper-Stone, he relates a very extraordinary Accident.
1863. Couch, Brit. Fishes, II. 48. The *Viper Weever, however, is common on most of the shores of Britain and Ireland.
1631. Massinger, Beleeve as You List, IV. i. Your *viper wine, So much in practise with gray bearded gallants, [is] But vappa to the nectar of her lippe.
1631. Quarles, Hist. Samson, Wks. (Grosart), II. 149/2. Their Viper-wines, to make old age presume To feele new lust, and youthfull Names agin.
1745. Eliza Heywood, Female Spect., No. 12 (1748), II. 292. Lady Frolick pouring a glass of viper wine down his throat.
1802. Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. II. 372. Galen … relates very remarkable cures of this disease [sc. elephantiasis] performed by means of viper wine.
1896. Academy, 28 Nov., 448/3. The legend that Lady Digby died of drinking viper-wine.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. 199. Th’ innammel’d Scorpion, and the *Viper-worm. Ibid. (1592), Tri. Faith, IV. v. The deadly sting of th’ ugly Viper-Worm.
b. Special collocations with viper’s, forming names of plants, as viper’s bugloss, the plant Echium vulgare or a variety of this; viper’s grass, a plant of the genus Scorzonera, esp. S. hispanica; † viper’s herb, viper’s bugloss; viper’s plant, viper’s grass.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cclxxii. 658. *Vipers Buglosse, or wall Buglosse.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Vipers Buglosse, a Solar herb, the roots and seeds whereof are Cordial and Expellers of Melancholy.
1698. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XX. 402. In Texture very much resembling our Vipers Bugloss.
1777. Jacob, Catal. Plants, 33. Echium anglicum, English Viper’s Bugloss. Echium vulgare, Viper’s Bugloss.
1840. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), I. 106. A flinty soil nourishes the Three-leaved Speedwell and the Viper’s Bugloss.
1869. Ruskin, Queen of Air, § 87. It [the serpent spirit] enters into the forget-me-not, and the star of heavenly turquoise is corrupted into the viper’s bugloss.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccxlii. 596. There be diuers sorts of plants conteined vnder the title of Viperaria, Scorzonera, or *Vipers grasse.
1629. Parkinson, Paradisus, 301. This Spanish Vipers grasse hath diuers long, and somewhat broad leaues. Ibid. This purple flowred Vipers grasse hath long and narrow leaues.
1718. Ozell, trans. Tournefort’s Voy., I. 174. A Flower of an inch and half diameter, yellow, like that of the common Vipers-grass.
1842. J. B. Fraser, Mesopot. & Assyria, xv. 359. East of Mosul, a species of vipers’-grass … abounds, and affords a plentiful nutriment.
1855. Delamer, Kitchen Gard. (1861), 32. Scorzonera, Viper’s-Grass, or Spanish Salsify.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. cclxxii. 659. It is called … in English vipers Buglosse, Snakes Buglosse, and of some *vipers herbe, and wilde Buglosse the lesser.
1884. trans. De Candolle’s Orig. Cultivated Pl., 45. Scorzonera hispanica … was formerly supposed to be an antidote against the bite of adders, and was sometimes called the *viper’s plant.
Hence (chiefly in nonce-use) Viperan, † Vipereal, † Vipered, Viperian adjs., of or pertaining to a viper; viperine, viperous; Viperiform a., having the form of a viper; viperine.
1877. Talmage, Serm., 338. The acid of a soured life, the *viperan sting of a bitter memory.
1748. Phil. Trans., XLV. 662. Hence perhaps the *vipereal Venom … may derive its Force.
1560. Fitzwilliam, Lett., in Froude, Hist. Eng. (1863), VIII. 16. There was not under the sun a more craftier *vipered undermining generation.
1848. Morn. Chron., 25 Jan., 4/3. We back that instance, for feminine finesse, and *viperian malignity, against any passage in SHERIDAN’s elaborate comedy.
1866. J. B. Rose, trans. Ovid’s Met., 115. And Perseus triumphant homeward brings Viperian spoils.
c. 1882. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 301. The poisonous Snakes are divided into two groups—the *Viperiform Snakes and the Venomous Colubrines.
