add·er 1 ( d  r)n. One that adds, especially a computational device that performs arithmetic addition. |
| ad·der 2 (dr) n. 1. See viper. 2. Any of several nonvenomous snakes, such as the milk snake of North America, popularly believed to be harmful. [Middle English, from an addre, alteration of a naddre, a snake, from Old English n  dre, snake.]Word History: The biblical injunction to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves looks somewhat alien in the Middle English guise "Loke ye be prudent as neddris and symple as dowves." Neddris, which is perhaps the strangest-looking word in this Middle English passage, would be adders in Modern English, with a different meaning and form. Adder, an example of specialization in meaning, no longer refers to just any serpent or snake, as it once did, but now denotes only specific kinds of snakes. Adder also illustrates a process known as false splitting, or juncture loss: the word came from Old English n dre and kept its n into the Middle English period, but later during that stage of the language people started analyzing the phrase a naddre as an addre the false splitting that has given us adder. |
adder1
n
1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Animals) Also called viper a common viper, Vipera berus, that is widely distributed in Europe, including Britain, and Asia and is typically dark greyish in colour with a black zigzag pattern along the back
2. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Animals) any of various similar venomous or nonvenomous snakes See also death adder, puff adder
[Old English nǣdre snake; in Middle English a naddre was mistaken for an addre; related to Old Norse nathr, Gothic nadrs]
adder2
n
(Electronics & Computer Science / Computer Science) a person or thing that adds, esp a single element of an electronic computer, the function of which is to add a single digit of each of two inputs
adder - A snake, it was first "a nadder," which was misanalyzed to "an adder."
See also related terms for snake.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. |  adder - a person who adds numbers calculator, estimator, figurer, reckoner, computer - an expert at calculation (or at operating calculating machines) |
| 2. |  adder - a machine that adds numbers calculating machine, calculator - a small machine that is used for mathematical calculations | |
| 3. |  adder - small terrestrial viper common in northern Eurasiaviper - venomous Old World snakes characterized by hollow venom-conducting fangs in the upper jaw genus Vipera, Vipera - type genus of the Viperidae |
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