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  1. salamander love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of various small lizardlike amphibians of the order Caudata, having porous scaleless skin and four, often weak or rudimentary legs.
  2. n. A mythical creature, generally resembling a lizard, believed capable of living in or withstanding fire.
  3. n. In the occult philosophy of Paracelsus, a being having fire as its element.
  4. n. An object, such as a poker, used in fire or capable of withstanding heat.
  5. n. Metallurgy A mass of solidified material, largely metallic, left in a blast-furnace hearth.
  6. n. A portable stove used to heat or dry buildings under construction.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A kind of lizard or other reptile formerly supposed to live in or be able to endure fire.
  2. n. An imaginary or immaterial being of human form living in fire; an elemental of the fire; that one of the four classes of nature-spirits which corresponds to the element fire, the others being called sylphs, undines, and gnomes.
  3. n. In zoology, a urodele batrachian, or tailed amphibian; a newt or an eft; a triton; especially, a terrestrial batrachian of this kind, not having the tail compressed like a fin, as distinguished from one of the aquatic kinds especially called newts or tritons; specifically, a member of the restricted family Salamandridæ. (See Salamandra.) It is a name of loose and comprehensive use. The two kinds of salamanders above noted are sometimes distinguished as land- and water-salamanders. All are harmless, timid creatures, with four legs and a tail, resembling lizards, but naked instead of scaly, and otherwise quite different from any lacertilians. The species are very numerous, representing many genera and several families of Urodela, and are found in most parts of the northern hemisphere, in brooks and ponds, and moist places on land. They are mostly small, a few inches long, but some, as the menopome, menobranch, hellbender, mudpuppy, etc., of America, attain a length of a foot or more, and the giant salamander of Japan, Megalobatrachus giganteus, is some 3 feet long. See also cuts under axolotl, hellbender, Menobranchus, newt, and Salamandra.
  4. n. In heraldry, the representation of a four-legged creature with a long tail, surrounded by flames of fire. It is a modern bearing, and the flames are usually drawn in a realistic way.
  5. n. The pocket-gopher of the South Atlantic and Mexican Gulf States, Geomys tuza or G. pinetis, a rodent mammal.
  6. n. Same as bear, 7.
  7. n. Anything used in connection with the fire, or useful only when very hot, as a culinary vessel, a poker, an iron used red-hot to ignite gunpowder, and the like.
  8. n. A fire-proof safe.
  9. n. A wire basket in which waste paper or other combustible refuse can be gathered by street-cleaners, and in which such waste can be burned.
  10. n. A mass of solidified and infusible material in an iron blast- or other smelting-furnace hearth. It usually consists of wrought-iron.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A long slender (usually) terrestrial amphibian, resembling a lizard and newt; taxonomic order Urodela
  2. n. mythology A creature much like a lizard that is resistant to and lives in fire, hence the elemental being of fire.
  3. n. cooking A metal utensil with a flat head which is heated and put over a dish to brown the top.
  4. n. cooking In a professional kitchen a small broiler, used primarily for browning.
  5. v. To apply a salamander (flat iron utensil above) in a cooking process.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of Urodela, belonging to Salamandra, Amblystoma, Plethodon, and various allied genera, especially those that are more or less terrestrial in their habits.
  2. n. (Zoöl.) The pouched gopher (Geomys tuza) of the Southern United States.
  3. n. A culinary utensil of metal with a plate or disk which is heated, and held over pastry, etc., to brown it.
  4. n. Prov. Eng. A large poker.
  5. n. (Metal.) Solidified material in a furnace hearth.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. fire iron consisting of a metal rod with a handle; used to stir a fire
  2. n. reptilian creature supposed to live in fire
  3. n. any of various typically terrestrial amphibians that resemble lizards and that return to water only to breed

Etymologies

  1. From Old French salamandre, from Latin salamandra, from Ancient Greek σαλαμάνδρα, of uncertain origin. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English salamandre, from Old French, from Latin salamandra, from Greek. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “No one knows how the term salamander transferred from a mythical fire-dwelling monster to the small amphibious animals it applies to today, but I have a theory.”

    Mongabay.com News

  • “The salamander was a mythical creature before it was a real one: the word salamander means a legendary lizard that both survived-in and could extinguish fire.”

    Mongabay.com News

  • “The salamander is among 37 species found for the first in the time in wildlife reserve during a study of its amphibians and reptiles sponsored by the BRT programme.”

    Archive 2006-12-01

  • “My salamander is an amphibian, and amphibians are the ancestors of all the animals on earth, even you and your Cat, you sons of toads!”

    It's Like This, Cat

  • “We were apparently too late in the season for the annual mating migration of the spotted salamander, which is apparently a big event in Black Dog Hollow, but I did see a snake, a tiny thin garter snake that slithered quickly under the rocks when it felt the vibrations from my feet.”

    Archive 2008-05-01

  • “The electrical version of a salamander, which is the same thing burning gas.”

    languagehat.com: BROIL/GRILL.

  • “Now the salamander is a clear case in point, to show us that animals do actually exist that fire cannot destroy; for this creature, so the story goes, not only walks through the fire but puts it out in doing so.”

    The History of Animals

  • “If the salamander was a prisoner, who had captured it?”

    Alvin Journeyman

  • “Abruptly he remembered that he'd come across something like it, called a salamander, in fiction once; the thing was supposed to be a spirit of fire, and dangerously destructive.”

    The Sky Is Falling

  • “Philippo was so prone to jealousy, that he suspected even this paragon, and worked himself into a belief in her infidelity by such euphuisms as these: "The greener the Alisander leaves be, the more bitter is the sap, and the salamander is the most warm when he lieth furthest from the fire," therefore "women are most heart-hollow, when they are most lip-holy.”

    A History of English Prose Fiction

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘salamander’.

Comments

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  • madmouth salamander and monster are both reformed French -re endings. the suffix in 'gangster' is -ster, like in huckster (root: to hawk). May 20, 2009

  • japitxatx Nouns ending in -er always make me ponder over their roots. What is to gangst, to monst, or to salamand? May 20, 2009

  • qroqqa 'If you had seen him drink and smoke, as I did, you couldn`t have kept anything from him. He's a Salamander you know, that's what he is.'
    . . .
    Having revolved these things in his mind and arrived at this conclusion, he communicated to Mr Swiveller as much of his meditations as he thought proper (Dick would have been perfectly satisfied with less), and giving him the day to recover himself from his late salamandering, accompanied him at evening to Mr Quilp's house.
    The Old Curiosity Shop, ch. 23

    Two nearby quotes, the first being Dick Swiveller's explanation of the smoking and drinking habits of Mr Quilp, in which he had been compelled to join; the second is pleasing for the gerundial noun 'salamandering'. Aug 8, 2008

  • qroqqa 'Ella! It speaks! It's a Pict and it speaks!'
    'Hold your hush or I'll lambast you with the salamander!' she shouted.
    —Joan Aiken, Black Hearts in Battersea

    3. Applied to various articles used in fire or capable of withstanding great heat.
    b. An iron or poker used red-hot for lighting a pipe, igniting gunpowder, etc. Aug 1, 2008

  • andrew.simone It was once thought that salamanders were immune to fire. I recall Augustine made mention of it in the City of God. He also said the peacock's flesh was incorruptable Dec 18, 2006

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‘salamander’ has been looked up 3015 times, loved by 4 people, added to 45 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.