python Look up python at Dictionary.com
1590, the fabled serpent, slain by Apollo, near Delphi, from L. Python, from Gk. Python, probably related to Pytho, the old name of Delphi, perhaps itself related to pythein "to rot." Zoological application to large non-venomous snakes of the tropics is from 1836, originally in Fr.
pythoness Look up pythoness at Dictionary.com
late 14c., "woman with the power of soothsaying," from O.Fr. phitonise (13c.), from L.L. pythonissa, used in Vulgate of the Witch of Endor (I Sam. xxviii. 7), and often treated as her proper name, lit. fem. of pytho "familiar spirit;" which ultimately is connected with the title of the prophetess of the Delphic Oracle, Gk. pythia hiereia, from Pythios, an epithet of Apollo, from Pytho, older name of the region of Delphi (see python).
anaconda Look up anaconda at Dictionary.com
1768, probably a Latinization of Sinhalese henacandaya "whip snake," lit. "lightning-stem." A name first used in Eng. to name a Ceylonese python, it erroneously was applied to a large S.Amer. boa, called in Brazil sucuriuba. The word is of uncertain origin, and no snake name like it now is found in Sinhalese or Tamil. Another suggestion is that it represents Tamil anaikkonda "having killed an elephant."
Latin Look up Latin at Dictionary.com
O.E. latin, from L. Latinus "belonging to Latium," the region of Italy around Rome, possibly from PIE base *stela- "to spread, extend," with a sense of "flat country" (as opposed to the mountainous district of the Sabines), or from a prehistoric non-IE language.
Centurion: What's this, then? ‘People called Romanes they go the house?’
Brian: It ... it says, ‘Romans, go home.’
Centurion [thrashing him like a schoolboy]: No, it doesn't. ‘Go home?' This is motion towards. Isn't it, boy?
Brian: Ah ... ah, dative, sir! Ahh! No, not dative! Not the dative, sir! No! Ah! Oh, the ... accusative! Domum, sir! Ah! Oooh! Ah!
Centurion [pulling him by the ear]: Except that domum takes the ...?
Brian: The locative, sir!
[Monty Python, "Life of Brian"]
Used as a designation for "people whose languages descend from Latin" (1856), hence Latin American (1893). The Latin Quarter (Fr. Quartier latin) of Paris, on the south (left) bank of the Seine, was the site of university buildings in the Middle Ages, hence the place where Latin was spoken. The surname Latimer, Lattimore, etc. is from V.L. latimarus, from L. latinarius "interpreter," lit. "a speaker of Latin."