Adder (snake)

  To many, the terms adder and "viper" are interchangeable, referring to any member of the Viperidae family. Although adder was more universally popular in the past, in the literature today it is still often used in combined names that refer to species belonging to the subfamily Viperinae (pitless vipers), especially those found in Europe and Africa. Only one species is still regularly referred to simply as "adder":

• Vipera berus, a.k.a. the common European adder.^[1][2][3]

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However, one other viper, a pitviper, has sometimes been referred to by that name:

• Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen, a.k.a. the northern copperhead; a venomous viper found in the eastern United States.^[4]

There are, of course, always exceptions to the above rule:

• Acanthophis sp., known as death adders, are not viperids at all, but elapids
• Heterodon sp., or hognose snakes, are sometimes referred to as puff adders for their threat display, but are colubrids.

Etymology

The word "adder" was nædre in Old English; in the 14th century a nadder was, like a napron, rebracketed as an adder. It appears with the generic meaning of serpent in the older forms of many Germanic languages, and is thus used in the Old English version of the Christian Scriptures for the devil, the serpent of Genesis.

Cited references

* This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

See also

• Viperinae by common name for many more "adders."