serpent

noun

1. a snake.
2. a wily, treacherous, or malicious person.
3. the Devil; Satan. Gen. 3:1–5.
4. a firework that burns with serpentine motion or flame.
5. an obsolete wooden wind instrument with a serpentine shape and a deep, coarse tone.Compare ophicleide.
6. (initial capital letter) Astronomy. the constellation Serpens.

noun

1. a literary or dialect word for snake
2. Old Testament a manifestation of Satan as a guileful tempter (Genesis 3:1–5)
3. a sly, deceitful, or unscrupulous person
4. an obsolete wind instrument resembling a snake in shape, the bass form of the cornett
5. a firework that moves about with a serpentine motion when ignited

n.c.1300, “limbless reptile,” also the tempter in Gen. iii:1-5, from Old French serpent, sarpent “snake, serpent” (12c.), from Latin serpentem (nominative serpens) “snake; creeping thing,” also the name of a constellation, from present participle of serpere “to creep,” from PIE *serp- “to crawl, creep” (cf. Sanskrit sarpati “creeps,” sarpah “serpent;” Greek herpein “to creep,” herpeton “serpent;” Albanian garper “serpent”). Used figuratively to express spiral or regularly sinuous, e.g. as the word for a type of musical instrument (1730). Serpent’s tongue as figurative of venomous or stinging speech is from mistaken medieval notion that the serpent’s tongue was its “sting.” Serpent’s tongue also was a name given to fossil shark’s teeth (c.1600). The creature in the Book of Genesis that tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, thus committing the first act of the Fall of Man. In the New Testament, the serpent of Genesis is identified with Satan.