python
pronunciation
How to pronounce python in British English:
UK [ˈpaɪθən]
How to pronounce python in American English:
US [ˈpaɪθɑn]
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- Noun:
- large Old World boas
- a soothsaying spirit or a person who is possessed by such a spirit
Word Origin
- python
- python: [19] The original Python was a fabulous serpent said to have been hatched from the mud of Deucalion’s flood (Deucalion was the Greek counterpart of Noah) and slain by Apollo near Delphi in ancient Greece. Its name, in Greek Pūthōn, may be related to Pūthó, an old name for Delphi; and that in turn, it has been speculated, may derive from púthein ‘rot’, as the serpent supposedly rotted there after its demise.Female soothsayers served at the Delphi oracle, and English adopted pythoness [14] as a general term for such ancient priestesses; and the four-yearly athletic contests held at Delphi in honour of Apollo were known as the Pythian Games (they were second in importance only to the Olympic Games). The scientific application of the name python to a genus of large Old World constricting snakes (now its most familiar role) dates from the 1830s.Then, in the late 1960s, a chance decision brought python a more left-field career move: after considering and rejecting several alternatives, a group of young comic writer-performers called their new surreally humorous BBC television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969–74), and by the mid-1970s Pythonesque was being used generically to suggest surreality or absurdity.
- python (n.)
- 1580s, fabled serpent, slain by Apollo near Delphi, from Latin Python, from Greek Python "serpent slain by Apollo," probably related to Pytho, the old name of Delphi, perhaps itself related to pythein "to rot," or from PIE *dhubh-(o)n-, from *dheub- "hollow, deep, bottom, depths," and used in reference to the monsters who inhabit them. Zoological application to large non-venomous snakes of the tropics is from 1836, originally in French.
Example
- 1. Monty python actor and writer john cleese had strong opinions about how stupid this was . "
- 2. To explain , he referred to an unnamed monty python colleague who rarely produced material that really sang .
- 3. Chapters 8 and 9 cover python design patterns .
- 4. A giant python on a placard squeezed the life out of russia .
- 5. Their guide had taken them through maramagambo forest and into python cave .