adder

See also: Adder

Englisch

WOTD – 11 January 2016

The head of the common European adder (Vipera berus)

The sea stickleback or adder-fish ()

Pronunciation

• 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)

Nomen

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 the viper.
   1. (chiefly British) 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. The common European adder (Vipera berus).
   2. The puff adders, of Africa (genus ).
   3. (US, Canada) Any of several small nonvenomous snakes resembling adders
      1. Lampropeltis triangulum (milk snake).
      2. Heterodon spp. (hog-nosed snakes), a genus of harmless colubrid snakes found in North America
   4. Certain venomous snakes resembling other adders
      1. Acanthophis spp. (death adders), elapid snakes found in Southeast Asia and Australia
      2. , the northern copperhead, a venomous viper found in the eastern United States
   5. A sea stickleback or adder fish ().

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 ()
• sea adder
• water adder

 

Translations

snake

• Afrikaans: adder
• Armenian: օձ (hy) (ōj)
• Bulgarian: змия (bg) (zmija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 毒蛇 (zh) (dúshé), 蝰蛇 (zh) (kuíshé)

• Dutch: adder (nl) f
• Finnish: käärme (fi)
• Galician: cóbrega (gl) f, pezoira f, liscáncere m, cobra (gl) f, quiobra f, becha (gl) f
• Georgian: გველი (gveli)
• German: Natter (de) f
• Indonesian: senawan (id)
• Irish: nathair f
• Japanese: 毒蛇 (ja) (どくへび, doku-hebi)
• Korean: 독사(毒蛇) (ko) (doksa)
• Low German: Adder (nds) f
• Macedonian: шарка f (šarka)
• Portuguese: cobra (pt) f, serpente (pt) f
• Russian: змея́ (ru) f (zmejá), гадю́ка (ru) f (gadjúka)
• Sanskrit: पृदाकु (sa) m (pṛdāku)
• Scottish Gaelic: nathair f
• Serbo-Croatian: guja (sh) f
• Spanish: serpiente (es) f, culebra (es) f
• Ukrainian: змія́ (uk) f (zmijá)
• Zazaki: zıngırok

viper

• Afrikaans: adder
• Akan: nanka
• Armenian: իժ (hy) (iž)
• Azerbaijani: gürzə
• Bulgarian: пепелянка (bg) (pepeljanka)
• Catalan: escurçó (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蝰蛇 (zh) (kuíshé)

• Czech: zmije (cs) f
• Danish: hugorm c
• Dutch: adder (nl) m
• Estonian: rästik (et)
• Finnish: kyy (fi)
• French: vipère (fr) f
• Galician: naia f, sacaveira f, áspide m, bichorro m
• Georgian: გველგესლა (gvelgesla)
• German: Otter (de) f, Viper (de) f, Kreuzotter (de) f
• Greek: οχιά (el) f (ochiá), έχιδνα (el) f (échidna)

  Ancient: ἔχιδνα f (ékhidna)

• Ido: vipero (io)
• Irish: nathair nimhe f
• Japanese: クサリヘビ (kusari-hebi), 鎖蛇 (ja) (くさりへび, kusari-hebi)
• Latin: aspis f
• Latvian: odze f
• Low German: Adder (nds) f; Krüüzadder f, Kriizadder f
• Macedonian: гуја f (guja)
• Polish: żmija (pl) f
• Portuguese: víbora (pt) f
• Russian: гадю́ка (ru) f (gadjúka)
• Sanskrit: पृदाकु (sa) m (pṛdāku)
• Serbo-Croatian: guja (sh) f
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: zmija f

• Spanish: víbora (es) f
• Swedish: huggorm (sv)
• Ukrainian: гадю́ка f (hadjúka)

Etymology 2

From add +‎ -er.

Nomen

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 oder 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

• Esperanto: sumilo, adiciilo
• Finnish: lisääjä, summain (circuit)
• Portuguese: somador m, somadora f
• Serbo-Croatian: zbrajač m, sumator m
• Spanish: sumador (es) m

what increases

• Finnish: lisääjä
• Portuguese: somador m, somadora f

Further reading

• adder on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• dared, dread, radde, re-add, readd

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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)

Nomen

adder (plural adders, diminutive addertjie)

1. viper, adder

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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

Nomen

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

• 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

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Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

adder

1. (deprecated template usage) imperative of addere

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Old Prussian

Conjunction

adder

1. oder

   wāiklis adder mergā - boy or girl

2. but