adder

See also: Adder and 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 (Australia):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ædə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English addre, form of naddre with rebracketing of /n/ as part of the indefinite article a(n), 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

Noun

adder (plural adders)

  1. (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, [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—
  2. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper.
    1. (chiefly UK) A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera
      • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, 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.
      1. A common European adder (Vipera berus).
    2. A puff adder, of Africa (genus Bitis).
    3. (US, Canada) Any of several small nonvenomous snakes resembling adders
      1. A milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum).
      2. A hog-nosed snake, of genus Heterodon of harmless colubrid snakes found in North America
    4. Certain venomous snakes resembling other adders
      1. Death adders (Acanthophis spp.), elapid snakes found in Southeast Asia and Australia
      2. A northern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen), a venomous viper found in the eastern United States
  3. A sea stickleback or adder fish (Spinachia spinachia).
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Etymology tree
English add
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-os?
Proto-Indo-European *-o-
Proto-Indo-European *-so-
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂so-
Proto-Indo-European *-is
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂s(i)yós
Proto-Italic *-āsijos
Proto-Italic *-āsios
Latin -āriusnom.
Latin -āriusbor.
Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz
Proto-West Germanic *-ārī
Old English -ere
Middle English -ere
▲
Latin -ārius
Old French -ierbor.
Middle English -er
English -er
English adder

    From add + -er.

    Noun

    adder (plural adders)

    1. Someone who or something which performs arithmetic addition; a machine for adding numbers.
    2. An electronic device that adds voltages, currents or frequencies.
    3. Something which adds or increases.
      They sought out cost adders with an eye toward eliminating them.
    Derived terms
    Translations

    Further reading

    Anagrams

    Afrikaans

    Etymology

    From Dutch adder, from Middle Dutch adder, adre, rebracketing of nadder, nadre, from Old Dutch *nadra, from Proto-Germanic *nadrǭ.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ˈadər/
    • Audio:(file)

    Noun

    adder (plural adders, diminutive addertjie)

    1. 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)

    1. viper, adder (snake of the family Viperidae)
    2. common viper (Vipera berus)

    Hypernyms

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    • Afrikaans: adder
    • Negerhollands: adder

    Anagrams

    Norwegian Bokmål

    Verb

    adder

    1. imperative of addere

    Old Prussian

    Etymology

    Borrowed from Early German adder, dialectal variant of oder (“or”).

    Conjunction

    adder

    1. or
    2. but, however
      • 1561, Martin Luther, translated by Abel Will & Paul Megott, Stas Likuts Catechismus [The Small Catechism], →OCLC, page 61, line 11:
        Kas ſtwi druwē bhe Crixtits
        wijrſt / ſtas wijrſt Deiwuts / kas adder ni Druwe /
        ſtas wijrſt perklantīts.
        That, who believes and is baptized, shall be blessed; that, however, who doesn't believe, shall be damned.
    3. only, but

    References

    • Mažiulis, Vytautas (1988), “adder”, in Prūsų kalbos etimologijos žodynas [Etymological Dictionary of Old Prussian]‎[1] (in Lithuanian), volume 1, Vilnius: Mokslas, page 48
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