rattlesnake

Etymology

It is a compound formed from English rattle + snake,^[2][3][4][5] from the rattle at the end of the snake's tail.^[6] The OED takes the first part as either the noun or the verb rattle,^[3][4] and Dictionary.com marks the word as an Americanism.^[5] The variant “rattled snake” was probably understood as rattle with the suffix -ed.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An American pit viper with horny rings at the end of its tail that rattle when shaken: 1624, in E. Winslow's Good Newes from New-England.^[3][8] The 1989 edition of the OED had 1630,^[9] the year of Higginson's New Englands Plantation, which mentions serpents called "Rattle Snakes" that have rattles in their tails.^[7] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date it to the 1620s.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the rattlesnake simply as a kind of serpent named from the rattle at the end of its tail.^[6] From 1791 the word was used figuratively for a dangerous or despicable person or thing, and also for someone or something that moves quickly.^[3] Since 1862 it has also named a strong cocktail, originally in the United States,^[3][4] later one of whiskey with an aniseed liqueur, lemon juice and sugar;^[3][4] Etymonline quotes the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which explained the name: the drink "will either cure Rattlesnake bite, or kill Rattlesnakes, or make you see them".^[2] The noun was also made into a verb: to punish severely (1814, in Southey), to deceive or trick (1818, in a letter of Keats), and to move quickly or with a rattling sound like a snake (1961, in M. Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie).^[3][4] Many American plants were named from the snake, such as rattlesnake root, rattlesnake fern and rattlesnake plantain, some because they were thought to cure its bite.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 1624 – a venomous American pit viper with a rattle on its tail.^[3][8] Etymonline gives the 1620s.^[2]
• 1748 – the variant “rattled snake”, in Washington's writings.^[7]
• 1791 – figurative, a dangerous or despicable person or thing.^[3]
• 1814 – verb, to punish severely (obsolete).^[3]
• 1818 – verb, to deceive or trick.^[3][4]
• 1862 – a strong cocktail.^[3][4]
• 1961 – verb, to move quickly or with a rattling sound.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several venomous American pit vipers of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus, with a series of loose horny segments at the end of the tail that make a rattling or buzzing sound when shaken.^[10][8][3]
2. A strong cocktail, especially of whiskey with an aniseed liqueur, lemon juice and sugar.^[3][4]

Verb

1. (rare) To deceive or trick.^[3][4]
2. (rare) To move quickly or with a rattling sound, like a snake.^[3][4]

Word family

• rattlesnake root
• diamondback rattlesnake
• rattlesnake plantain
• rattlesnake fern
• rattlesnake master
• timber rattlesnake
• rattlesnake weed
• western diamondback rattlesnake

Related words

• rattle
• rattler
• snake

Usage notes

In American regional speech the snake is also called a rattler, belltail or buzz tail; the Dictionary of American Regional English finds rattlesnake widespread, though less frequent in the Inland North, the North Midland and the Central Atlantic states.^[7]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt