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A.Word.A.Day--adder

adder (AD-uhr) noun

One that adds, especially a computational device that performs arithmetic

adder noun

1. Any of several venomous Old World snakes of the family Viperidae, having a single pair of long, hollow fangs and a thick, heavy body. Also called 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, a + naddre, snake (from Old English naedre.]

"Brusher was a regular visitor to the Crown Hotel at Lyndhurst, Hants, where he would drop an adder near a group of ladies and then rescue them when they screamed for help." Sean O'Neill, Images of New Forest snake man up for sale, The Daily Telegraph, 4 Oct 1997.

This week's theme: words created by false splitting.

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