cerastes

American  

[suh-ras-teez] / səˈræs tiz /

noun

plural

cerastes

1. any of several small vipers of the genus Cerastes, including the horned viper, that have a sideways looping motion like that of a sidewinder and inhabit deserts of northern Africa and southwestern Asia.

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cerastes British  

/ səˈræstiːz /

noun

1. any venomous snake of the genus Cerastes, esp the horned viper

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Etymology

Origin of cerastes

1768; < New Latin < Greek kerástēs literally, something horned, equivalent to kerat- stem of kéras horn + -tēs noun suffix; earlier in sense “asp,” Middle English < Medieval Latin, Latin, as above

Example Sentences

The rattlesnake Crotalus cerastes is venomous to humans.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 2022

They came as if drawn by a spell: venomous toads and snakes of every description, asp and adder, cerastes and acontias; only one old serpent, disabled apparently by age, ignored the summons.

From Works of Lucian of Samosata — Volume 03 by Fowler, F. G. (Francis George)

Judge his anguish then, and my disappointment, when, seven days before her twenty-first birthday, she was bitten by a cerastes, and her body died.

From Weapons of Mystery by Hocking, Joseph

The original term here is shephiphon, and is understood by several authors to denote the cerastes, a very poisonous kind of viper, distinguished by having horns.

From Palestine or the Holy Land From the Earliest Period to the Present Time by Russell, Michael

Of all the deadly worms that breed in these wildernesses the most formidable, because the most sluggish, is the two-horned nocturnal cerastes, the "pretty worm of Nilus."

From Fountains in the Sand Rambles Among the Oases of Tunisia by Douglas, Norman