adder
See also: Adder
English
WOTD – 11 January 2016
The head of the common European adder (Vipera berus)
The sea stickleback or adder-fish (Spinachia spinachia)
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈædɚ/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ædə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
From Middle English nadder, addere, rebracketing of “a naddere” as “an addere”, from Old English nǣdre (“snake”), from Proto-West Germanic *nadrā, from Proto-Germanic *nadrǭ, from pre-Germanic *néh₁treh₂, variant of Proto-Indo-European *n̥h₁trih₂, from *(s)neh₁- (“to spin, twist”)
See also West Frisian njirre, Dutch adder, German Natter, Otter; also Welsh neidr, Latin natrīx (“watersnake”), Dutch naaien.
Alternative forms
- edder (dialectal)
Noun
adder (plural adders)
- (obsolete) Any snake.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:
- CALIBAN: His spirits hear me, / And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch / Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i'th' mire, / Nor lead me like a firebrand in the dark / Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but / For every trifle are they set upon me, / Sometimes like apes that mow and chatter at me, / And after bite me; then like hedgehogs, which / Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount / Their pricks at my footfall; sometimes am I / All wound with adders, who with their cloven tongues / Do hiss me into madness—
-
- A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling the viper.
- (chiefly Britain) A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 245:
- Entirely filled with the image of another, her heart, indeed, had the deaf ear of the adder, which heedeth not the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely.
- 2021 August 25, Nick Brodrick, “Flourishing Flora and Fauna”, in RAIL, number 938, page 51:
- These include the county's [Cumbria's] only venomous snake - the adder - which relies on exposed elements to successfully breed its young.
- The common European adder (Vipera berus).
-
- The puff adders, of Africa (genus Bitis).
- (US, Canada) Any of several small nonvenomous snakes resembling adders
- Lampropeltis triangulum (milk snake).
- Heterodon spp. (hog-nosed snakes), a genus of harmless colubrid snakes found in North America
- Certain venomous snakes resembling other adders
- Acanthophis spp. (death adders), elapid snakes found in Southeast Asia and Australia
- Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen, the northern copperhead, a venomous viper found in the eastern United States
- A sea stickleback or adder fish (Spinachia spinachia).
- (chiefly Britain) A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera
Derived terms
- adder fish
- adder fly
- adder stone
- butterfly adder
- common death adder
- death adder
- horned adder
- Kimberley death adder
- pit adder, pit-adder
- puff adder (Bitis arietans)
- sea adder
- water adder
Translations
snake
|
viper
|
Etymology 2
From add + -er.
Noun
adder (plural adders)
- Someone who or something which performs arithmetic addition; a machine for adding numbers.
- An electronic device that adds voltages, currents or frequencies.
- Something which adds or increases.
- They sought out cost adders with an eye toward eliminating them.
Derived terms
- carry-lookahead adder
- carry-save adder
- carry-skip adder
- full adder
- half adder
Translations
what performs arithmetic addition
|
what increases
|
Further reading
adder on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
- dared, dread, radde, re-add, readd
Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutch adder, from Middle Dutch adder, adre, misdivison of nadder, nadre, from Old Dutch *nadra, from Proto-Germanic *nadrǭ.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈadər/
Audio (file)
Noun
adder (plural adders, diminutive addertjie)
- viper, adder
Dutch
Etymology
From Middle Dutch adder, adre, rebracketing of nadder, nadre, from Old Dutch *nadra, from Proto-West Germanic *nadrā.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɑ.dər/
audio (file) - Hyphenation: ad‧der
- Rhymes: -ɑdər
Noun
adder m or f (plural adders or adderen, diminutive addertje n)
- viper, adder; snake of the family Viperidae
- common viper, Vipera berus
Hypernyms
- slang
Derived terms
- addergebroed
- boomadder
- een adder aan zijn borst koesteren
- een addertje onder het gras
- groefkopadder
- pofadder
Descendants
- Afrikaans: adder
- Negerhollands: adder
Anagrams
- dader
Norwegian Bokmål
Verb
adder
- imperative of addere
Old Prussian
Conjunction
adder
- or
- wāiklis adder mergā - boy or girl
- but