a large South American snake of the boa family, that wraps itself tightly around other animals to kill them before eating them Topics Animalsc2水蚺(南美洲蟒蛇) Word Originmid 18th cent. (originally denoting a kind of Sri Lankan snake): unexplained alteration of Latin anacandaia ‘python’, from Sinhalese henakaňdayā ‘whip snake’, from hena ‘lightning’ + kaňda ‘stem’.