Serpentines

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Characterized by curves or bends resembling a winding path or movement; relating to a long, slender, and often sinuous shape; describing actions or movements that twist and turn in a graceful yet complicated manner
2. Pertaining to forms or motions that are intricately coiling like a serpent; indicative of a pathway that is not straight but has numerous turns; embodying the concept of spirals or zigzagging lines in design or movement
3. Referring to shapes or routes that are marked by sinuous twists akin to snakes; describing the act of turning or moving in a winding manner; denoting the qualities of curves that evoke the image of a serpent's form

Etymology: "Serpentines" is the plural form of "serpentine," so it refers to the winding curves or routes themselves, and its history is that of the adjective and noun it comes from. The root is the Latin "serpēns," meaning "serpent" or "snake," which gave English "serpent" and, through a suffix, the adjective "serpentīnus," meaning snake-like or winding. That Latin adjective passed into Old French as "serpentin" and then into Middle English as "serpentine." The Latin ending "-ine," from "-īnus," signals something belonging to or resembling the base noun, so "serpentine" literally means "of or like a serpent." That is the same logic behind words like "feline" and "canine." The sense of twisting, sinuous movement grows naturally out of the snake image, since a serpent's body moves in coils and bends, and the plural form has come to describe such winding paths and turns.

Synonyms: twists, curves, meanders, winds, zigzags

Antonyms: straightness, directness