Book VII · The Unclaimed Entry 53 of 55
Python — unclaimed
Claimed by an oracle, a missile and a comedy troupe. Never by a car.
The longest snakes in the world, a Greek oracle, an Israeli air-to-air missile and a programming language have all taken this name. No manufacturer has put it on a car.
- Book
- Book VII — The Unclaimed
- Marque
- Unclaimed
- Model
- Python
- Years
- Available immediately
- Origin
- Africa, Asia, Australia
- Namesake
- Python
- Binomial
- Pythonidae
Sigil generated from the entry's own name. Every coil, hue and scale in this plate is a function of the string “vacancy-python”, and of nothing else.
The reticulated python is the longest snake in the world, with verified individuals well past six metres, and it has a pattern that is one of the finest optical arguments in nature: a geometric net of black, gold and cream that, on a forest floor, resolves into nothing at all.
The word arrives to us from Delphi, from the serpent Apollo killed, and possibly from a Greek verb meaning to rot — the animal decomposing in the sun where the god left it. The oracle kept the name. So did a missile. So did a programming language, though that one was named after a television programme.
The automotive vacancy is conspicuous. Python is a better car name than most of the words currently in use. It is two syllables, it is globally recognised, it means something enormous and patient, and it has never been formally applied to a production automobile.
The Ophidiary suspects the reason is that “python” now reads, to a great many people, as something you write software in — which is the precise fate the mamba has so far avoided and the reason the mamba remains the better opportunity.
A god killed one and kept the name. A missile took it. A programming language took it. Detroit never even looked.
Questions people actually ask
What is the longest snake in the world?
The reticulated python, with verified specimens exceeding six metres. The green anaconda is heavier but generally shorter.
Provenance of claims
This is a satire with a research habit. Every load-bearing statement above is listed here and labelled, so you can tell which sentences would survive a librarian.
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Documented
The reticulated python is the longest snake species.
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Documented
The name derives from the serpent Python slain by Apollo at Delphi.
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Contested
No production car has carried the Python name.