reptile

See also: Reptile, réptile, and rep-tile

English

Etymology

From Middle English reptil, from Old French reptile, from Late Latin rēptile, neuter of reptilis (“creeping”), from Latin rēpō (“to creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *rep- (“to creep, slink”) (Pokorny; Watkins, 1969).

Picture dictionary

reptile

alligator

alligator

crocodile

crocodile

chameleon

chameleon

dinosaur

dinosaur

lizard

lizard

snake

snake

turtle

turtle

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɛpˈtaɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛp.taɪl/, /ˈɹɛp.taɪəl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪl

Noun

reptile (plural reptiles)

1. (strictly, informal) Any cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Reptilia that is not a bird, usually egglaying and scaled. [from 19th c.]
2. (zoology, scientifically speaking) Any member of Reptilia, including birds.
3. (loosely, historical) A reptile or amphibian. [from 18th c.]

   Synonyms: herptile, herp

4. (figuratively, dated) A mean, grovelling, loathsome or repulsive person.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     This work may, indeed, be considered as a great creation of our own; and for a little reptile of a critic to presume to find fault with any of its parts, without knowing the manner in which the whole is connected, and before he comes to the final catastrophe, is a most presumptuous absurdity.

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     "That reptile," whispered Pott, catching Mr. Pickwick by the arm, and pointing towards the stranger. "That reptile — Slurk, of the Independent!"

   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XXVII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

     […] If I pitied you for crying and looking so very frightened, you should spurn such pity. Ellen, tell him how disgraceful this conduct is. Rise, and don’t degrade yourself into an abject reptile—don’t!

Hypernyms

• (vertebrate of class Reptilia): amniote, sauropsid

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:reptile

Related terms

• mammal-like reptile
• Reptilia
• reptilian
• reptilianness
• reptiloid
• reptilology
• reptilologist
• reptoid
• reptologist

Translations

a cold-blooded vertebrate

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Afar: ali
• Afrikaans: reptiel (af)
• Albanian: rrëshqanor (sq) m
• Arabic: زَحَّافَة f (zaḥḥāfa)
• Aragonese: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: սողուն (hy) (soġun), զեռուն (hy) (zeṙun)
• Asturian: reptil (ast)
• Avar: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: sürünən
• Bashkir: һөйрәлеүсе (höyrəlewse)
• Basque: narrasti
• Belarusian: рэпты́лія f (reptýlija), паўзу́н (be) m (paŭzún), гад m (had) (colloquial: includes reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, etc.)
• Bengali: সরীসৃপ (bn) (śorisrip), রেপ্তাইল (reptail)
• Bishnupriya Manipuri: please add this translation if you can
• Breton: stlejvil (br) m
• Bulgarian: влечу́го (bg) n (vlečúgo), гад (bg) m (gad) (archaic, now of repulsive animals or people)
• Burmese: တွားသွားကောင် (my) (twa:swa:kaung)
• Buryat: мүлхигшэ (mülxigše)
• Carpathian Rusyn: плаз m (plaz)
• Catalan: rèptil (ca) m
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 爬蟲 / 爬虫 (paa⁴ cung⁴), 爬蟲類 / 爬虫类 (paa⁴ cung⁴ leoi⁶)

  Hokkien: 爬蟲 / 爬虫 (pâ-thiông)

  Mandarin: 爬蟲 / 爬虫 (zh) (páchóng), 爬行類 / 爬行类 (zh) (páxínglèi), 爬蟲類 / 爬虫类 (zh) (páchónglèi)

• Corsican: rettile m
• Crimean Tatar: sürüngen
• Czech: plaz (cs) m
• Danish: krybdyr (da) n, reptil n
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: reptiel (nl) n
• Esperanto: reptilio
• Estonian: roomaja, reptiil
• Faroese: skriðdýr, skriðdjór n, reptilla f
• Finnish: matelija (fi), reptiili (informal)
• French: reptile (fr) m
• Galician: réptil (gl)
• Georgian: ქვეწარმავალი (kvec̣armavali)
• German: Kriechtier (de) n, Reptil (de) n, Wurm (de) m (poetic)
• Greek: ερπετό (el) (erpetó)

  Ancient: ἑρπετόν n (herpetón)

• Hawaiian: moʻo, lepekile
• Hebrew: זוֹחֵל m (zokhél)
• Hindi: सर्पणशील (sarpaṇśīl), सरीसृप (hi) m (sarīsŕp)
• Hungarian: hüllő (hu)
• Icelandic: skriðdýr (is) n, réptíll m
• Ido: reptero (io)
• Indonesian: reptil (id), binatang (id) melata (id)
• Interlingua: reptile
• Irish: reiptíl f
• Italian: reptilia f, rettile (it) m
• Japanese: 爬虫 (ja) (はちゅう, hachū), 爬虫類 (ja) (はちゅうるい, hachūrui)
• Javanese: reptil
• Kannada: ಸರೀಸೃಪ (kn) (sarīsṛpa)
• Kazakh: бауырымен жорғалаушы (bauyrymen jorğalauşy), рептилия (reptiliä)
• Khmer: ឧរង្គសត្វ (ʼurɑngkĕəʼsat), ល្មូន (lmuun)
• Korean: 파충류(爬蟲類) (ko) (pachungnyu), 파충(爬蟲) (pachung)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: xişok (ku), reptîl

• Kyrgyz: рептилия (reptiliya), сойлоочу (ky) (soyloocu)
• Lao: ເລືອຄານ (lư̄a khān)
• Latin: reptilia (la)
• Latvian: rāpulis m, reptils m
• Limburgish: reptiele
• Lithuanian: roplys m, reptilas m
• Low German:

  German Low German: Krüüpdeer n, Kruupdeer n

• Luxembourgish: Reptil n
• Macedonian: влекач m (vlekač), влечуга f (vlečuga)
• Malay: reptilia (ms), reptil, binatang reptilia, haiwan reptilia
• Malayalam: ഉരഗം (ml) (uragaṁ)
• Maltese: rettili m
• Marathi: सरपटणारा प्राणी (sarpaṭṇārā prāṇī), सरीसृप (sarīsrup)
• Mon: မၟာ (mnw)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хэвлээр явагч (xevleer javagč)

• Navajo: naaldlooshii dadichʼízhii
• Neapolitan: rettile m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: krypdyr (no) n, reptil (no) n

  Nynorsk: krypdyr n, reptil n

• Occitan: reptilia
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: гадъ m (gadŭ)

• Old East Slavic: гадъ m (gadŭ) (includes reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, etc.)
• Old English: slincend m
• Old Javanese: sarisepa
• Ossetian: хилӕгой (xilægoj)
• Pannonian Rusyn: шмикач m (šmikač)
• Persian:

  Dari: خَزَنْدَه (xazanda)

  Iranian Persian: خَزَنْدِه (xazande)

• Polish: gad (pl) m
• Portuguese: réptil (pt) m
• Quechua: suchuq
• Romanian: reptilă (ro) f
• Romansch: reptil m
• Russian: пресмыка́ющееся (ru) n (presmykájuščejesja), репти́лия (ru) f (reptílija), гад (ru) m (gad) (colloquial: includes reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, etc.)
• Samogitian: ruoplē m, reptils m
• Sanskrit: सरीसृप (sa) (sarīsṛpa)
• Scottish Gaelic: snàigean m, pèist f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: гма̑з m, гми̏завац m, рѐптӣл m

  Roman: gmȃz (sh) m, gmȉzavac (sh) m, rèptīl m

• Sicilian: rettili (scn) m
• Slovak: plaz m
• Slovene: plazílec (sl) m
• Spanish: reptil (es) m
• Sundanese: réptil
• Swahili: reptaili
• Swedish: kräldjur (sv) n, reptil (sv) c
• Tagalog: bayabag, reptilya
• Tajik: рептилия (reptiliya), хазанда (xazanda)
• Tamil: ஊர்வன (ta) (ūrvaṉa)
• Tatar: сөйрәлүче (tt) (söyrälüçe)
• Telugu: సరీసృపం (te) (sarīsr̥paṁ)
• Thai: สัตว์เลื้อยคลาน (th) (sàt-lʉ́ai-klaan)
• Turkish: sürüngen (tr)
• Turkmen: süýreniji
• Tuvan: соястаар (soyastaar)
• Ukrainian: плазу́н m (plazún), репти́лія f (reptýlija), гад m (had) (colloquial: includes reptiles, amphibians, molluscs, etc.)
• Upper Sorbian: łažaki
• Urdu: خَزَنْدَہ m (xazanda)
• Uyghur: ئۆمىلىگۈچى ھايۋان (ömiligüchi haywan)
• Uzbek: reptiliya
• Vietnamese: động vật bò sát, loài bò sát (vi), bò sát (vi)
• Volapük: räptul (vo)
• Welsh: ymlusgiad (cy) m
• West Frisian: reptyl n, krûpdier n
• Yiddish: רעפּטיליע f (reptilye), שרץ m (sherets)
• Zazaki: xuzande c, reptiliya f, kasnend c, bulinger c

Adjective

reptile (not comparable)

1. Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs.
2. Grovelling; low; vulgar.

   a reptile race or crew    reptile vices

   • 1795–1797, Edmund Burke, “(please specify |letter=1 to 4)”, in [Letters on a Regicide Peace], London: [Rivington]:

     There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear.

   • 1800, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Christabel. Part II.”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 34:

     My herald shall appoint a week, / And let the recreant traitors seek / My tournay court—that there and then / I may dislodge their reptile souls / From the bodies and forms of men!

Synonyms

• (creeping, crawling): reptilious, creeping, crawling; reptitious (obsolete)
• (contemptible): See Thesaurus:despicable

See also

• herpetology
• Category:en:Reptiles for a list of reptiles in English
• reptile on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Peltier, peitrel, perlite, triple-E

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin rēptilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁɛp.til/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

reptile m (plural reptiles)

1. reptile

Derived terms

• reptilien

Descendants

• → Romanian: reptilă

Further reading

• “reptile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Etymology

Substantivized neuter of rēptilis (“creeping”), taken from the phrase animal rēptile.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈreːp.tɪ.ɫɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈrɛp.t̪i.le]

Noun

rēptile n (genitive rēptilis); third declension

1. (Late Latin) a reptile

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, pure i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	rēptile	rēptilia
genitive	rēptilis	rēptilium
dative	rēptilī	rēptilibus
accusative	rēptile	rēptilia
ablative	rēptilī	rēptilibus
vocative	rēptile	rēptilia

Descendants

• → English: reptile
• → French: reptile
• → German: Reptil
• → Norwegian Bokmål: reptil
• → Spanish: reptil
• → Swedish: reptil

References

• rēptilis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• rēptilis in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung
• “rēptilis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “rēptilis”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎^[1], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC