Also 4 arske, 4–6 aske, 5 awsk. [Apparently worn down from OE. áðexe newt (= OS. egithassa, OHG. egidehsa, MHG. egedehse, mod.G. eidechse), the phonetic contraction being paralleled by the Ger. dial. edechs, egdes, eges, eckes, given by Grimm III. 83; but no intermediate forms between áðexe and aske, such as áðesce, aðsce, or aðxe, axe, have been found.]
A newt or eft; the common name in Scotland, and in the north and north-east of England as far as Morecambe Bay and Lincolnshire. Sometimes applied also to the lizard; always classed among venomous animals, an idea encouraged by a general confusion of ask with asp. See also ASKER2.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 141. Snakes and nederes thar he fand, And gret blac tades … And arskes and other wormes felle.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., I. xiii. 55. Nakyn best of venym … as aske or eddyre, tade, or pade.
c. 1450. Henryson, Poems (1917), 222 (Jam.).
| Dispone thy-self and cum with me in hy, | |
| Edderis, askis, and wormis meit for to be. |
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., I. xxv. The water stank, the feild was odious Quhair dragouns, lessertis, askis, edders, swatterit.
1611. Florio, Magrasio, an Eft, a Nute, an Aske.
1840. J. M. Wilson, T. of Borders (1851), XX. 31. He can lurk in the green moss like the yellow-wamed ask.
1876. Smiles, Scotch Nat., ii. (ed. 4), 44. He looked at the beast. It was not an eel. It was very like an ask.
In the following Glossaries of the Eng. Dial. Soc., Cumberland, Swaledale, Mid Yorkshire, Whitby (Ask or Aisk: Fleeing-ask, the dragon-fly: cf. Flying Adder, Flying Dragon), Manley and Corringham (Lincolnsh.)
