especially: a device (as in a computer) that performs addition
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How Adder Lost Its First Letter
Words formed by what linguists call “false division,” “misdivision,” or “metanalysis” have spellings that record a mistake that was made at some point in their history, when the spelling or sound of the word was split in the wrong place.
Misdivisions of words that begin with the letter n are frequent because, in speech, it is difficult to distinguish between the sound of the indefinite article “a” followed by a word beginning with an n (as in “a name”) and the sound of the indefinite article “an” followed by a word beginning with a vowel (as in “an aim”). This make the position of the n very easily confused.
An example is the name of the venomous snake known as the adder. The Old English word for this viper was nǣdre, which became nadder in Middle English. Over time, a nadder became an adder. By by the mid-1400s, the word was being spelled both with and without the n, but since about 1500, the n-less spelling has prevailed.
Examples of adder in a Sentence
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Noun
The death adder’s plight illustrates another important point: In a 2013 review of the relevant scientific literature to date, Robertson and his colleagues concluded that exotic species are the single largest cause of evolutionary traps.—Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 30 Sep. 2024 This attitude poses a threat to Europe’s adder populations, already on the decline because of habitat destruction.—Byphie Jacobs, science.org, 20 Sep. 2024 That massive range is in part due to the adder’s ability to withstand low temperatures, Lüddecke explains.—Byphie Jacobs, science.org, 20 Sep. 2024 Sometimes referred to as the Gaboon adder, this snake preys on a variety of small to medium-sized animals, including rodents like rats, birds such as francolins, and small mammals like rabbits and mongooses.—Scott Travers, Forbes, 7 Sep. 2024 Known by a host of common names—trout lily, fawn lily, and adder's tongue—this woodland wildflower is a harbinger of spring.—Nadia Hassani, Better Homes & Gardens, 31 Jan. 2024 The Australian death adder spends most of its days hidden in leaf litter, often with only the tip of its tail exposed.—Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023 Biologists found that death adders possess clitorises, then went on to locate them in eight other species of snakes.—Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Mar. 2023 Australian scientists who played sounds for snakes found that woma pythons tend to move toward pink noise while death adders tend to move away.—Michael W. Clune, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Apr. 2023
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
Middle English addre, eddre, alteration (resulting from misdivision of a naddre) of naddre, neddre, going back to Old English nǣdre "adder, snake," going back to West Germanic nēdrōn- (whence also Old Saxon nādra "grass snake [Natrix natrix or allied species]," Old High German nātara, nāter), going back to dialectal (western) Indo-European *neh1tr-, full-grade ablaut of *nh1tr- (whence Old Norse naðr "adder, snake," Gothic nadrs "snake, viper," Latin natric-, natrix "water snake [as Natrix maura]," Old Irish nathir [genitive singular nathrach] "snake," Welsh neidr [plural nadredd], Breton aer, naer "grass snake"), perhaps from *(s)neh1- "twist together, spin" + *-tr-, -ter-, agent suffix (hence "one who winds, twists") — more at needle entry 1
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