An
adder is a name for the common viper
? (Vipera cevus), ranging
from Wales to Saghalien island, and from Caithness to the north
of Spain. The puff-adder (Bitis s. Echidna arietans) of
nearly the whole of Africa, and the death-adder (Acanthophis
antarcticus) from
Australia to the Moluccas, are both very
poisonous (see VIPER). The word was in Old Eng. noedre,
later nadder or naddre; in the 14th century
a nadder
was, like
a napron, wrongly divided into
an adder. It
appears with the generic meaning of serpent
? in the older
forms of many Teutonic languages, cf. Old High Ger. natra;
Goth. nadrs. It is thus used in the Old Eng. version of
the Scriptures for the devil, the
serpent of
Genesis.
Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed
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