adderbolt

English

Etymology

From adder (“venomous snake”) +‎ bolt (“arrow”).

Noun

adderbolt (plural adderbolts)

  1. (now UK dialectal) A dragonfly. [from 15th c.]
    • 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXXIX:
      Other Animals I observ'd to have yet a greater number, as the Dragon-Fly or Adderbolt […].
    • 1742, John Martyn, Ephraim Chambers, transl., The Philosophical History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, volume II, page 355:
      This philosopher has also found an insect fish, which transforms into an adder-bolt.
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