Meaning
A large, smooth-scaled Jamaican lizard, deeply feared in country folklore. Old belief holds it to be venomous and tells that after it bites, whoever reaches water first — you or the galliwasp — decides who lives or dies, so a bitten person races the lizard to the nearest water. In truth the galliwasp is harmless, its fearsome reputation pure superstition, but the dread of it runs deep in rural tradition, and it belongs with the duppy and the rolling calf among the feared creatures of Jamaican folk belief.
Examples
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A galliwasp run cross di path.
A galliwasp ran across the path.
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Country people fraid a galliwasp.
Country people are afraid of the galliwasp.
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Dem seh galliwasp bite, but it nuh poison.
They say the galliwasp bites, but it isn't venomous.
Origin
An old Caribbean name for the lizard (genus Celestus); its exact roots are unclear, but the folklore around it is long-standing.
How it’s used
Wrapped in superstition despite being harmless. A stock figure of Jamaican country tales and warnings.