sb. Also 8–9 edder. [Ultimately a. Icel. æðar (pron. aiðăr), genit. of æð-r eider-duck, in the comb. æðar-dún eider-down. The continental forms, Sw. † eider, now ejder(-gås), Da. eder(-fugl), Ger. eider(-ente), are similarly adopted from. Icel. The present Eng. spelling is probably from the Sw. used by Von Troil.]
1. A species of duck, Somateria mollissima, abundant in the Arctic regions, that lines its nest with EIDER-DOWN; also, King-eider (Somateria spectabilis). Chiefly attrib., as in eider-bird, -duck, EIDER-DOWN.
1743. in Phil. Trans., XLII. 612. Amongst the Sea-birds are the Edder, Ducks of Three Kinds.
1780. Von Troil, Iceland, 143. The eider-bird is yet more useful to the natives.
1852. D. Moir, Fowler, viii. The eider ducks, With their wild eyes, and necks of changeful blue.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., 269. Swans and brantgeese, harlequins and eiders.
1864. [H. W. Wheelwright], Spring in Lapl., 384. The king eider and Barrow’s Iceland duck are only occasionally seen in the autumn.
2. The down itself.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1812), II. 243. The down known by the name of Eider or Edder which these birds furnish.
3. attrib. or adj. Resembling eider-down.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., II. 18. Sleep protects him with his eider wings.
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., III. ii. 259. Beneath her eider robe the … earth Watches … for the sun.
