英语词汇cockatrice的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

cockatrice; ichneumon. Thanks to Pliny and other incredu- lous observers, people were terrified of this fantastic monster with the wings of a bird, the tail of a dragon, and the crested head of a cock until well into the 17th century. Said to be born of a cock’s egg, the monster was, according to one old descrip- tion, about “a foot long, with black and yellow skin and fiery red eyes,” but others described it as much larger. It could be killed only by the crowing of a cock and so travelers often car- ried roosters with them to Africa or wherever they feared a cockatrice might be encountered. Otherwise, just a glance from the fabulous creature’s eye could kill them, with only the crafty weasel immune to its “death rays.” The cockatrice takes its name from the Greek ichneumon, which means “a tracker.” This was translated into the Latin calcatrix, “a tracker,” and calcatrix was ultimately corrupted to the English cockatrice. The mythical creature was called “a tracker” by the Greeks because they be- lieved that it tracked down and devoured the eggs and young of the crocodile. In this respect it was probably given the charac- teristics of the real Egyptian ichneumon, an animal that does hunt down and devour crocodile eggs.

词汇	cockatrice
词源	cockatrice; ichneumon. Thanks to Pliny and other incredu- lous observers, people were terrified of this fantastic monster with the wings of a bird, the tail of a dragon, and the crested head of a cock until well into the 17th century. Said to be born of a cock’s egg, the monster was, according to one old descrip- tion, about “a foot long, with black and yellow skin and fiery red eyes,” but others described it as much larger. It could be killed only by the crowing of a cock and so travelers often car- ried roosters with them to Africa or wherever they feared a cockatrice might be encountered. Otherwise, just a glance from the fabulous creature’s eye could kill them, with only the crafty weasel immune to its “death rays.” The cockatrice takes its name from the Greek ichneumon, which means “a tracker.” This was translated into the Latin calcatrix, “a tracker,” and calcatrix was ultimately corrupted to the English cockatrice. The mythical creature was called “a tracker” by the Greeks because they be- lieved that it tracked down and devoured the eggs and young of the crocodile. In this respect it was probably given the charac- teristics of the real Egyptian ichneumon, an animal that does hunt down and devour crocodile eggs.
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