Otter

See also: otter

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒt.ə/
• (General American) enPR: ŏtʹər, IPA^(key): /ˈɑtɚ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Homophone: odder (US)
• Rhymes: -ɒtə(ɹ)

Proper noun

Otter

1. A river with its source in the Blackdown Hills, Somerset, and which flows through Devon, to Lyme Bay in the English Channel.

Related terms

• Otterford
• Otterhead
• Ottery St Mary

Anagrams

• Treto, ortet, toret, torte, toter

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔtɐ/

Etymology 1

From Middle High German otter, from Old High German ottar, from Proto-West Germanic *ot(t)r, from Proto-Germanic *utraz, from Proto-Indo-European *udrós.

Noun

Otter m (strong, genitive Otters, plural Otter)

1. otter

Declension

Declension of Otter [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Otter	die	Otter
genitive	eines	des	Otters	der	Otter
dative	einem	dem	Otter	den	Ottern
accusative	einen	den	Otter	die	Otter

Derived terms

• Fischotter m
• Seeotter m

Etymology 2

From early New High German nō̆ter, eastern secondary form of Middle High German nāter, from Old High German nātara. Originally the same word as Natter “colubrid”, which see.

The form is based on the common dialectal development -ā- → -ō- with subsequent irregular shortening. Loss of initial n- is a common development in the Germanic languages and is due to metanalysis, i.e. the unetymological segmentation of preceding endings or articles, for example: *eine notter, dialectally *en notter → *en‿otter. The same happened in Dutch adder and English adder. The German form was spread by Luther.

Noun

Otter f (genitive Otter, plural Ottern)

1. adder
2. viper

Usage notes

• At least outside of scientific parlance, this word is chiefly restricted to compound words, to avoid confusion with Etymology 1.

Declension

Declension of Otter [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Otter	die	Ottern
genitive	einer	der	Otter	der	Ottern
dative	einer	der	Otter	den	Ottern
accusative	eine	die	Otter	die	Ottern

Derived terms

• Kreuzotter
• Otterngezücht

Saterland Frisian

n'Otter.

Etymology

From Old Frisian *otter, from Proto-West Germanic *ottr. Cognates include West Frisian otter and German Otter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔtər/
• Hyphenation: Ot‧ter

Noun

Otter m (plural Ottere)

1. otter

Derived terms

• Fiskotter

 

References

• Marron C. Fort (2015) “Otter”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN