Wyvre

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mythical winged dragon with two legs and a barbed tail, often shown in heraldic coats of arms
2. A legendary serpent-like creature with bat-like wings, two hind legs and a venomous sting in its tail
3. An archaic name for the heraldic dragon that has wings, two legs and a barbed tail as its distinguishing features

Etymology: A creature that began as a snake ended up as a winged, two-legged dragon. The name descends from Latin "vipera," meaning "viper," which passed through Old French as "wivre" and reached English in Middle English as "wyvre," "wyver," or "wyvere." The form "wyvre" is a medieval spelling of the same word. Medieval writers used the name for a dragon-like beast, and the creature's distinguishing feature was its two legs, where a true dragon had four. Heralds later adopted it as a heraldic charge, which is why the wyvern still appears on coats of arms, and its legs and wings became fixed features of the image.