The story
- Latin · derived fromvīpera
- Old French · derived fromvipre
- Middle French · borrowed fromvipere
- English todayviper
From Middle French vipere, from Old French vipre, from Latin vīpera, contracted from vīvipara f (“viviparous”, adj.), from vīvus (“alive”, adj.) + parere (“to bear”, verb). Doublet of weever and wyvern.
Words from the same roots
Latinvīpera all →
wyvernweever
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.