Obs. Forms: 4 baselycoc, 4–5 -cok, basilicok, -iskoc, 5 basylicock, -ycok, 6 basilicock. [a. OF. basilicoc, -ecoc (nom. sing. and acc. pl. basilicos), f. basilic:—L. basiliscus BASILISK + -oc = It. -occo, usually augmentative) sometimes diminutive. Here perhaps associated with coq cock: cf. cockatrice.] = BASILISK 1.
1340. Ayenb., 28. Þanne is he [the envious] of þe kende of þe baselycoc, uor no grenhede ne may yleste beuore hym.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 778. That sleeth right as the Basilicok [v.r. Baselycok] sleeth folk by the venym of his sighte.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., II. vi. 77. Basylicocks [have] … the heed lyke a cocke and body of a serpent.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1877), 109. Like a Cockatrise, or Basilicock, which slay or kill men with the poison of their sighte.
