‖ dipsas
(ˈdɪpsæs)
Pl. dipsades (ˈdɪpsədiːz). Also 5 dypsa, 6 (Her.) dipsez, 8 dipsa, dypsas.
[L. dipsas, Gr. δίψας a serpent whose bite caused great thirst, orig. adj., causing thirst, f. δίψα thirst. Cf. F. dipsade, dipsas, older dipse (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. A serpent whose bite was fabled to produce a raging thirst.
| 1382 Wyclif Deut. viii. 15 Scorpioun, and dipsas, that is, an eddre that whom he biteth, he maketh thurȝ threste die. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) v. iii. 198/1 Flaterers be lykened to an adder that is called dypsa. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 63 A Dipsez verte, charged on the firste quarter. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xxii. xv. 213 Of serpents, to wit..the Dipsades, and the Vipers. 1627 May Lucan ix. 703 Dipsases in midst of water dry. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 526 Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire, Cerastes hornd, Hydrus, and Ellops drear, And Dipsas. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies xx. 39 Here the dry dipsa writhes his sinuous mail. 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. iii. iv. 19 It thirsted As one bit by a dipsas. 1894 F. S. Ellis Reynard 336 A dipsas is a worm accurst, From whose bite follows raging thirst. |
2. Zool. a. A tropical genus of non-venomous serpents. b. A genus of fresh-water bivalves of the family Unionidæ, or river-mussels.
| 1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 280 Under the non-venomous [serpents] are arranged the following genera:—Tortrix: Boa..Coluber..Dipsas. 1843 Ibid. XXVI. 5 Mr. J. E. Gray makes the Unionidæ the eighth family of his order Cladopoda. Genera:—Anodon, Margaritana, Dipsas. |