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.