blindworm
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Inherited from Middle English blynde worme, equivalent to blind + worm due to its very small eyes.
Noun[edit]
blindworm (plural blindworms)
- Anguis fragilis (slowworm), a small species of legless lizard.
- 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “[(please specify the book title). Chapter 6.]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC, page 228:
- […] we haue a blind worme to be found vnder logs in woods, and timber that hath lien long in a place, which some also doo call (and vpon better ground) by the name of [s]low worms, and they are knowen easilie by their more or lesse varietie of striped colours, drawen long waies from their heads, their whole bodies little excéeding a foot in length, & yet is there venem deadlie.
- c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
- You spotted snakes with double tongue,
Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
Come not near our fairy queen.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 77:
- "But I'll give you a bit of advice! Take a blindworm - I'll find you one - and ram it into the barrel of your gun and then fire it, after that you may try what powder and shot will do."
Translations[edit]
slowworm — see slowworm
References[edit]
Anguis fragilis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
