[Loch-Ruadh] word for the day

[Jane Sitton]

Your daily vocabulary lesson: manticore * \MAN-tih-kore\ * (noun) : a
legendary animal with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of
a dragon or scorpion
Example sentence: The book, a collection of fantastic tales, has on its
cover a vivid illustration of a wild-eyed manticore chasing a hunter.
Did you know? A mythical creature of ancient fables, the manticore keeps
company with the better-known unicorn, dragon, and griffin.  Descriptions of
the manticore's features sometimes differ (some accounts mention porcupine
quills or poisonous spikes, for example; others depict the tail as having a
serpent's head), but the animal is by all accounts a dreadful beast.  The
word "manticore" came to English through Greek and Latin, and is probably
ultimately of Iranian origin.  Etymologists think it is related to an Old
Persian word for "man-eater."