slow-worm
(ˈsləʊwɜːm)
Forms: α. 1 slawerm, -wyrm, 5 -worme, 9 north. dial. slaa-, slea(a)-worm, Sc. slayworm. β. 2 slowurm, 5 -wurme, -werme, 6 -worme, 6, 9 -worm; 6 slooworme; 6 sloewourme, 7 -worme, 7, 9 -worm. γ. 6 slowe worme, 6–7 slow-worme, 7–9 slow worm, slowworm, 7– slow-worm.
[OE. slá-wyrm; the obscure first element appears also in MSw. slā (Sw. slå, dial. slo; also in comb. ormslå), Norw. slo (and ormslo), sl{obar}a, sleva, etc., a slow-worm. Association with the adj. slow is not apparent before the 16th cent.]
1. A small harmless scincoid lizard, Anguis fragilis, native to most parts of Europe; the blindworm.
In early glossaries, etc., the word is used to render various Latin names of serpents and lizards. Shaw (1802) used slow-worm as a generic name for the Angues.
| α a 900 Kentish Glosses in Wr.-Wülcker 80 Regulus, slawerm. a 1050 Liber Scintill. xxviii. (1889) 105 Snacas & ealswa slawyrm [L. regulus] attru hit tosend oþþe ongytt. a 1100 in Napier O.E. Glosses 50/1856 Spalangii, musci uenenosi, þære scortan næddran, slawyrmes. 1483 Cath. Angl. 343/2 A Slaworme, secula. 1821 Ayr & Wigton Courier 22 Mar. (Jam.), Tho' slayworms and adders be coiled by thy rills. 1828 Carr Craven Gloss., Slaa-worm, a blind worm. 1878 Cumbld. Gloss 88/2 Slea worm,..the so-called blind worm, slo-worm. |
| β 11.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 544 Stellio, slowurm. 14.. Ibid. 571 Cecula, a Slowerme. c 1475 Ibid. 766 Hic calus, a slowurme. 1530 Palsgr. 271/2 Sloo worme. 1581 J. Derricke Image Irel. (1883) 35 Behold you not the Slo⁓worme there, with Vipers generation? 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 176 The Stork delighteth in Newts, Water-snakes, Adders, and Sloe-worms. 1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words 365 Slow worm, or Sloe-worm,..the blind worm. 1878 [see α]. |
| γ 1558 W. Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 30 b, A certayne litle Serpent called a Slowe worme. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 86 Thine eyes are like the slowwormes in the night. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 153 So are slow-Wormes accounted blinde,..although their eyes be evident. 1681 Grew Musæum i. iii. 48 The greater Slow-worm,..Called also the Blind-worm. 1762 Phil. Trans. LII. 475 As to the slow-worm, I have had two fair trials, to conclude, that his bite is quite harmless. 1791 Burns Let. in Wks. (Globe) 495 When I matriculate in the herald's office, I intend that my supporters shall be two sloths, my crest a slow-worm. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 852 Where the two contrived their daughter's good,..The slow-worm creeps..and all is open field. 1897 G. C. Bateman Vivarium 114 The Slow-worm has made itself famous by being the first to reveal to science the mysterious pineal, or median, eye. |
| transf. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. IV, 23 Avoidyng the slowe worme and deadely Dormouse called Idlenes. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 62 Was euer..Ledgerdemaine a slow-worme, or Viuacitie a lasie-bones? |
2. Used to render L.
scytale in its original or modern application.
| 1611 Cotgr., Scytale, the Scytall; a dangerous Sloe-worme. 1668 Charleton Onomast. 31 Scytale,..the slow Worm. 1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. ii. 590 Seban Slow-worm, Scytalæ Americanæ,..a small species, figured and slightly described in the work of Seba. |
3. (See
quot.)
| 1897 G. C. Bateman Vivarium 129 The Spotted Slow-worm (Acontias meleagris).—The general shape of this Lizard is not unlike that of the Common Slow-worm (Anguis fragilis), hence its English name. |