Alternative forms

• adder-stone
• adderstone

Etymology

From adder +‎ stoneCategory:English compound terms#ADDERSTONE. The word is attested since the late 16th century, its earliest use being found in a work by Arthur Golding (c. 1536 – 1606).^[1] The perforation was imagined to be made by the sting of an adder.^[2]

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#ADDERSTONE
• Hyphenation: ad‧der stone

Noun

adder stone (plural adder stones)Category:English lemmas#ADDERSTONECategory:English nouns#ADDERSTONECategory:English countable nouns#ADDERSTONECategory:English multiword terms#ADDERSTONECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#ADDERSTONECategory:Pages with entries#ADDER%20STONECategory:Pages with 1 entry#ADDER%20STONE

1. A stone of varying forms and usually glassy with a naturally formed hole, which is often used as an amulet or bead.
   • 1918, Astra Cielo, Signs, Omens and Superstitions, New York, N.Y.: George Sully and Company, →OCLC, page 63:

     Adder stones are supposed to be efficacious against disease of cattle.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ADDERSTONE

   • 1963, Archie Carr, The Reptiles, New York, N.Y.: Time-Life Books, →OCLC, page 149:

     These adder stones were actually old beads found about the countryside, but the Druids claimed that they were produced by a group reproductive effort of a summer congress of adders, and held some of the magic of the parent snakes. Adder stones strengthened their owners in legal disputes and helped them get access to kings.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ADDERSTONE

   • 2014, Mark Rogers, The Esoteric Codex: Magic Objects I, [Raleigh, N.C.]: Lulu Press, Inc., page 15:

     An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ADDERSTONE

   • 2015, Colleen Houck, Reawakened, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN:

     I saw a flash on the stony hill on the other side of the pool, as if a mirror were reflecting the light cast by the hole in Dr. Hassan′s adder stone.

     Category:English terms with quotations#ADDERSTONE

References

Further reading

• “adder-stone”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.