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WYVERN, or WIVERN

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 881 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WYVERN, or WIVERN , the name of an heraldic See also:monster, with the forepart of a winged See also:dragon and the See also:hind See also:part of a See also:serpent or See also:lizard (see See also:HERALDRY). The earlier spelling of the word was wiver or wivere; O. Eng. wyvre; O. Fr. wivee, mod. givre. It is a doublet of " See also:viper," with an excrescent n, as in " See also:bittern," M. Eng. bitore. X the twenty-See also:fourth See also:letter of the See also:English See also:alphabet. Its position and See also:form are derived from the Latin alphabet, which received them from the Western See also:Greek alphabet. The alphabet of the Western Greeks differed from the Ionic, which is the Greek alphabet now in See also:general use, by the shape and position of X and of some other consonants. The Ionic alphabet placed x () immediately after N and, in the See also:oldest records, in the form +, from which the See also:ordinary Greek See also:capital 17 was See also:developed. The position and shape of this See also:symbol show clearly that it was taken from the Semitic Samekh, which on the Moabite See also:stone appears as . Why the Greeks attached this value to the symbol is not clear; in Semitic the symbol indicates the ordinary s.

Still less clear is the origin of the form X, which in the Ionic alphabet stands for x (k followed by a breath). In a very See also:

ancient alphabet on a small See also:vase found in 1882 at Formello near the ancient See also:Veii in See also:Etruria, a symbol appears after N consisting of three See also:horizontal and three See also:vertical lines, ®. From this it has been suggested that both forms of the Greek x are derived, by removing the vertical lines, X in its earliest form + by removing the four marginal lines. The Ionic symbol, however, corresponds closely to the earliest Phoenician, so that this theory is not very plausible for Z, and there are various other possibilities for the development of X (see ALPHABET). This symbol appears in the very See also:early Latin See also:inscriptions found in the See also:Roman See also:Forum in 1899 as )&. In its usual value as ks it is superfluous. In the Ionic alphabet it was useful, because there it represented a single See also:sound, which before the invention of the symbol had to be represented by See also:kit. In the alphabet in use officially at See also:Athens before 403 B.C. X was written by Yv (kits). In English there is an interesting variation of See also:pronunciation in many words according to the position of the See also:accent: if the accent precedes, x is pronounced ks; if it follows, x is pronounced gz: compare exit (eksit) with exact (egzact). The symbol X was used both by the See also:Romans and the Etruscans for the See also:numeral to. Which borrowed from the other is uncertain, but the Etruscans did not use X as part of their alphabet.

X with a horizontal See also:

line over it was used for 10,000, and when a line on each See also:side was added, n, for a million. (P.

End of Article: WYVERN, or WIVERN

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