Editing Anaconda (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Anaconda Redpath museum.jpg|thumb|upright=2.5|An anaconda skeleton at the [[Redpath Museum]]]]
The name ''Eunectes'' is derived from {{langx|grc|εὐνήκτης|eunēktēs|good swimmer}}.

The South American names ''anacauchoa'' and ''anacaona'' were suggested in an account by [[Peter Martyr d'Anghiera]]. The idea of a South American origin was questioned by [[Henry Walter Bates]] who, in his travels in South America, failed to find any similar name in use. The word anaconda is derived from the name of a snake from Ceylon ([[Sri Lanka]]) that [[John Ray]] described in Latin in his ''{{Lang|la|Synopsis Methodica Animalium}}'' (1693) as ''{{Lang|la|serpens indicus bubalinus anacandaia zeylonibus, ides bubalorum aliorumque jumentorum membra conterens}}''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ray|first=John|author-link=John Ray|year=1693|title=Synopsis methodica animalium quadrupedum et serpentini generis|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28832440|page=332|language=la|publisher=Impensis S. Smith & B. Walford|location=London|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.41459|via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref> 

Ray used a catalogue of snakes from the [[Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie|Leyden museum]] supplied by Dr. [[Tancred Robinson]]. The description of its habit was based on [[Andreas Cleyer]], who in 1684 described a gigantic snake that crushed large animals by coiling around their bodies and crushing their bones.<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles|last=Owen|year=1742|title=An essay towards a natural history of serpents|page=114|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/38946374|location=London|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.58688|via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref> [[Henry Yule]] in his 1886 work ''[[Hobson-Jobson]]'', notes that the word became more popular due to a piece of fiction published in 1768 in the Scots Magazine by a certain R. Edwin. Edwin described a '[[tiger]]' being crushed to death by an anaconda, when there were never any tigers in Sri Lanka.{{efn|In [[South Asia]]n languages like Hindi, the [[leopard]] and [[tiger]] may share the same name, that is ''Bágh'' ({{langx|hi|बाघ}}), and it is the former that occurs in Sri Lanka.<ref name="Pocock1930">{{cite journal |last=Pocock |first=Reginald I. |author-link=Reginald Innes Pocock |title=The Panthers and Ounces of Asia |journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society |volume=34 |issue=2 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48295762 |pages=307–336 |year=1930 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref>}} 

Yule and [[Frank Wall (herpetologist)|Frank Wall]] noted that the snake was a python and suggested a [[Tamil language|Tamil]] origin ''{{Transliteration|ta|anai-kondra}}'' meaning elephant killer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wall |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Wall (herpetologist) |year=1921 |title=Ophidia Taprobanica or the Snakes of Ceylon |publisher=H. R. Cottle, Government Printer|place=Ceylon |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37045831 |page=48 |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.53694 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}</ref> A [[Sinhala language|Sinhalese]] origin was also suggested by Donald Ferguson who pointed out that the word ''{{Transliteration|si|Henakandaya}}'' (''{{Transliteration|si|hena}}'' lightning/large and ''{{Transliteration|si|kanda}}'' stem/trunk) was used in Sri Lanka for the small whip snake (''[[Ahaetulla pulverulenta]]'')<ref>{{cite journal |last=Willey |first=Arthur |author-link=Arthur Willey |title=Some rare snakes of Ceylon |journal=Spolia Zeylanica |year=1904 |volume=1 |issue=3 |url=https://archive.org/stream/spoliazeylanica01nati#page/84/mode/1up/ |pages=81–89|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and somehow got misapplied to the python before myths were created.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Notes and Queries|volume=12|issue=294|year=1897|last=Ferguson|first=Donald |pages=123–124 |title=The derivation of "Anaconda"|url=https://archive.org/stream/s8notesqueries12londuoft#page/123/mode/1up|doi=10.1093/nq/s8-XII.294.123|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A concise etymological dictionary of the English Language|last=Skeat|first=Walter W.|author-link=Walter William Skeat|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1882|page=16|url=https://archive.org/stream/conciseetymologi00skea#page/16/mode/1up|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://archive.org/stream/hobsonjobsonagl02croogoog#page/n76/mode/1up|pages=24–25|title=Hobson-Jobson|last1=Yule|first1=Henry|author-link1=Henry Yule|first2=Arthur C.|last2=Burnell|author-link2=Arthur Coke Burnell|publisher=John Murray|place=London|year=1903|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

The name commonly used for the anaconda in Brazil is ''sucuri'', ''sucuriju'' or ''sucuriuba''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dicionário online de português: sucuriju|url=http://www.dicio.com.br/sucuriju/|language=pt|access-date=19 February 2014|archive-date=27 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227093051/http://www.dicio.com.br/sucuriju/|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Anaconda and Squamata skeletons.jpg|thumb|A {{convert|14|ft|m|adj=on|order=flip}} anaconda skeleton (center) on display at the [[Museum of Osteology]], alongside other species for comparison]]