Word of the Day

: January 21, 2010

colubrine

adjective KAHL-yuh-bryne

What It Means

1 : of, relating to, or resembling a snake

2 : of or relating to a large cosmopolitan family (Colubridae) of chiefly nonvenomous snakes

colubrine in Context

"By the time the music starts throbbing at 9, there will undoubtedly be a colubrine line slithering down Mass. Ave." (Christopher Muther, The Boston Globe, March 2002)

Did You Know?

"Colubrine" may be less common than other animal words, such as "canine," "feline," and "bovine," but it has been around for a good long while. Ultimately derived from the Latin "colubra" ("snake"), it slithered into the English language in the 16th century. ("Cobra," by the way, comes from the same Latin word, but entered English through Portuguese.) Some other words for "snakelike" are "serpentine" (a more common alternative) and "ophidian" (from the Greek word for snake: "ophis").