night-adder, noun

Origin:
English, South African DutchShow more English interpretation of South African Dutch nachtslang, nacht night + slang snake.
1. Any of several nocturnal snakes of the genus Causus of the Viperidae, especially the common night-adder Causus rhombeatus; nachtslang sense 1. 2. Any of several nocturnal snakes of the Colubridae, especially the aurora snake, Lamprophis aurora, and the herald, Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia; nachtslang sense 3.
1816 G. Barker Journal. 12 JulyWorked at my peice [sic] of Land, Killed the first serpent I had seen alive in Africa, called a Night Adder.
1832 Graham’s Town Jrnl 23 Mar. 50A man in the service of Mr. Bailie was last week bitten in the leg by a night adder.
1834 T. Pringle Afr. Sketches 280There are several species of snakes which have come under my own observation, such as the nacht-slang (night-adder).
1853 F.P. Fleming Kaffraria 82The Whip Snake, the Black Snake, the Night Adder, and the House Viper, are all of them venomous in their nature, and fatal in the effect of their bites, if not taken in time.
1854 T. Shone Diary. 15 Jan.This morning Henry came home, with the Melancholy news of the Death of Joseph Dixie From the bite of a night Adder.
1888 Cape Punch 29 Feb. 119‘It’s a snake,’ I yells in my terror, ‘a bloomin’ night adder.’
1907 J.P. Fitzpatrick Jock of Bushveld 347A night adder rose up before his face and slithered out its forked tongue.
1915 Chambers’s Jrnl (U.K.) July 437The night-adder, as its name implies, is most in evidence after sundown.
1932 Grocott’s Daily Mail 5 Apr. 2Little Joyce Dunstan..had a terrifying experience with a night adder over Easter, says the Natal Mercury.
1937 Guide to Vertebrate Fauna of E. Cape Prov. (Albany Museum) II. 62Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia, Laur. Herald-Snake. Red-lipped Snake..(sometimes miscalled Night-adder).
1947 J. Stevenson-Hamilton Wild Life in S. Afr. 329The Night Adder (Causus rhombeatus)...I have often seen my cats eating night adders which they have caught and killed.
1956 A.G. McRae Hill Called Grazing 103Adders, particularly the sluggish night adders that hunted in the strawberries, she would pin with an intrepid forepaw behind the head and hold until help came.
1971 Rand Daily Mail 12 Jan.John had now been bitten four times by snakes — by a puffadder, a cobra, twice by a night-adder and now by the Berg-adder.
1989 J. Hobbs Thoughts in Makeshift Mortuary 86One of our sergeants killed a night-adder by the fence this morning.
Any of several nocturnal snakes of the genus Causus of the Viperidae, especially the common night-adder Causus rhombeatus; nachtslang sense 1.
Any of several nocturnal snakes of the Colubridae, especially the aurora snake, Lamprophis aurora, and the herald, Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia; nachtslang sense 3.
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