| 释义 |
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), sløa, 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.
αa900Kentish Glosses in Wr.-Wülcker 80 Regulus, slawerm. a1050Liber Scintill. xxviii. (1889) 105 Snacas & ealswa slawyrm [L. regulus] attru hit tosend oþþe ongytt. a1100in Napier O.E. Glosses 50/1856 Spalangii, musci uenenosi, þære scortan næddran, slawyrmes. 1483Cath. Angl. 343/2 A Slaworme, secula. 1821Ayr & Wigton Courier 22 Mar. (Jam.), Tho' slayworms and adders be coiled by thy rills. 1828Carr Craven Gloss., Slaa-worm, a blind worm. 1878Cumbld. Gloss 88/2 Slea worm,..the so-called blind worm, slo-worm.
β11..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 544 Stellio, slowurm. 14..Ibid. 571 Cecula, a Slowerme. c1475Ibid. 766 Hic calus, a slowurme. 1530Palsgr. 271/2 Sloo worme. 1581J. Derricke Image Irel. (1883) 35 Behold you not the Slo⁓worme there, with Vipers generation? 1655Moufet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 176 The Stork delighteth in Newts, Water-snakes, Adders, and Sloe-worms. 1823E. Moor Suffolk Words 365 Slow worm, or Sloe-worm,..the blind worm. 1878[see α].
γ1558W. Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 30 b, A certayne litle Serpent called a Slowe worme. 1589Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 86 Thine eyes are like the slowwormes in the night. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 153 So are slow-Wormes accounted blinde,..although their eyes be evident. 1681Grew Musæum i. iii. 48 The greater Slow-worm,..Called also the Blind-worm. 1762Phil. Trans. LII. 475 As to the slow-worm, I have had two fair trials, to conclude, that his bite is quite harmless. 1791Burns 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. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 852 Where the two contrived their daughter's good,..The slow-worm creeps..and all is open field. 1897G. 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.a1548Hall Chron., Hen. IV, 23 Avoidyng the slowe worme and deadely Dormouse called Idlenes. 1596Nashe 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.
1611Cotgr., Scytale, the Scytall; a dangerous Sloe-worme. 1668Charleton Onomast. 31 Scytale,..the slow Worm. 1802Shaw 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.)
1897G. 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. |