† basilicock Obs.
Forms: 4 baselycoc, 4–5 -cok, basilicok, -iskoc, 5 basylicock, -ycok, 6 basilicock.
[a. OF. basilicoc, -ecoc (nom. sing. and acc. pl. basilicos), f. basilic:—L. basiliscus basilisk + -oc = It. -occo, usually augmentative, sometimes diminutive. Here perhaps associated with coq cock: cf. cockatrice.]
= basilisk 1.
| 1340 Ayenb. 28 Þanne is he [the envious] of þe kende of þe baselycoc, uor no grenhede ne may yleste beuore hym. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶778 That sleeth right as the Basilicok [v.r. Baselycok] sleeth folk by the venym of his sighte. 1481 Caxton Myrr. ii. vi. 77 Basylicocks [have]..the heed lyke a cocke and body of a serpent. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. (1877) 109 Like a Cockatrise, or Basilicock, which slay or kill men with the poison of their sighte. |