means A snake, especially a large or menacing one, often invoked in mythic, biblical, or literary contexts as a symbol of danger, cunning, or evil.

from From Latin serpens, 'a creeping thing,' the present participle of serpere, 'to creep or crawl.' That Latin verb traces back to a Proto-Indo-European root *serp-, 'to crawl,' which also gave Greek herpein, 'to creep' — the same root coiled into 'herpetology,' the study of reptiles. So at its heart, 'serpent' simply names the thing that goes by creeping: motion become identity.