klip-salamander, noun

Origin:
Afrikaans, South African Dutch, Dutch, LatinShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch, from Dutch klip rock + salamander, from Latin salamandra reptile resembling a lizard.
obsolescent
The spiny girdle-tailed lizard Cordylus cordylus of the Cordylidae.
1838 J.E. Alexander Exped. into Int. I. 143The country now got worse every mile...‘A dassé could not live here,’ said a Boor, ‘only a klip salamander’.
1911 State Sept. 251 (Pettman)A species of lizard with a long name, klip-salamander, whose sole occupation is to lie all day on a rock in the blazing sun — though not asleep, for its eyes are always open.
1911 D.B. Hook ’Tis but Yesterday 124None of the parasites they harboured made any impression on Piet, whose skin was like that of a klip salamander.
1950 W. Rose Reptiles & Amphibians 149The type most commonly met with in Cape Province is Cordylus cordylus, sometimes misleadingly referred to as the Klip Salamander...Stretched out on a rock these Zonures have the appearance of diminutive crocodiles, but the tail is proportionately far more spiky and is not flattened.
1970 Beeton & Dorner in Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.1 No.2, 47Klip-salamander,..(Cordylus cordylus) spiny girdle-tailed lizard widely distributed in rocky uplands.
The spiny girdle-tailed lizard Cordylus cordylus of the Cordylidae.
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