Cocodrille

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An old spelling of crocodile, referring to a large predatory reptile with a long snout and powerful jaws that lives in rivers and marshes
2. An archaic form of the word for the large, armored, meat-eating reptile found in tropical waterways across Africa, Asia and the Americas
3. A obsolete variant spelling for the scaly river reptile with sharp teeth, long tail and thick hide, known for lurking at the water's edge

Etymology: The spelling "cocodrille" is an obsolete form of "crocodile" that English used in the Middle Ages, when the animal was known mainly from travellers' accounts and from the bestiaries that described it. Its ancient Greek source, "krokodeilos," probably combined "krokē," meaning pebble or gravel, with "drilos," a word for worm or small creature. The name may refer to the reptile's habit of lying on sun-warmed riverbank stones, though the exact sense of the second element is debated. The name passed into Latin as "crocodilus" and then into Old French as "cocodrille," the form English borrowed. Over the centuries the Latin-influenced spelling "crocodile" won out, and "cocodrille" dropped from use. The old spelling survives mainly in historical texts and in quotations from medieval manuscripts.