• slow worm, slow-worm

From Middle English sloworm (possibly influenced by slow), from Old English slāwyrm (“slow-worm, blindworm”), from *slā, related to Norwegian slo (“slow-worm”), Swedish slå (“slow-worm”) + wyrm (“worm, snake”). Compare Swedish ormslå.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsləʊwɜː(ɹ)m/

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slowworm (plural slowworms)

1. A small Old World lizard, Anguis fragilis, often mistaken for a snake, having no legs and small eyes.

   Synonyms: blindworm, deaf adder, hazelworm, long-cripple, steelworm

   Hypernym: lizard

   • c. 1588, Robert Greene, “Scene Eleventh. Frier Bacons cell.”, in The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay‎^[1]:

     Well, sir, it may be we shall have some better orations of it anon: well, Ile watch you as narrowly as ever you were watcht, and Ile play with you as the nightingale with the slowworme;[…]

• Liberman, Anatoly (2008), “Slowworm”, in An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 196-200.

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  Anguis fragilis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia