atter

• attir, etter (Scotland)

From Middle English atter, ater, from Old English āttor, ǣttor, ātor (“poison”), from Proto-West Germanic *aitr, from Proto-Germanic *aitrą (“gland, matter”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyd-, *h₂oyd- (“tumor, abscess”), related to Ancient Greek οἶδος (oîdos, “swelling, tumour, abscess, produced by internal action”).

Cognate with Scots attir (“corrupt matter, pus”), Scots atter, etter (“poison, venom”), Shetlandic eter (“poison; bitter cold”), Old Norse eitr, Icelandic eitur (“poison”), Faroese eitur, Norwegian eiter (“venom”), Swedish etter (“poison, venom, virulence”), Danish edder, ædder (“venom”), Saterland Frisian Atter (“pus”), Dutch etter (“pus”), German Eiter (“poison, pus”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈætə/
• Rhymes: -ætə(ɹ)

atter (plural atters)

1. (archaic or UK dialectal) Poisonous bodily fluid, especially venom of a venomous animal, such as a snake, dragon or other reptile; corrupt or morbid matter from the body, such as pus from a sore or wound; bitter substance, such as bile.
2. (archaic, figuratively) Moral corruption or corruptness; noxious or corrupt influence, poison to the soul, evil, anger, envy, hatred; destruction, death.
3. (UK dialectal) Epithelium produced on the tongue.
4. (UK dialectal) A scab; a dry sore.

atter (third-person singular simple present atters, present participle attering, simple past and past participle attered)

1. (UK dialectal) to venom; sting
2. (UK dialectal) to discharge, as a sore; clot; curdle; cake

• Ratte, Treat, ratte, tater, teart, tetra, tetra-, treat

From Old Norse aptr.

• IPA^(key): /atər/, [ˈad̥ɐ]
• Rhymes: -atʌ

atter

1. again

• igen

• attere, attir, attre, atture, attyr, attyre
• atterr (Ormulum)

From Old English āttor, ǣttor, variants of ātor, from Proto-West Germanic *aitr, from Proto-Germanic *aitrą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyd-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈatər/

atter (uncountable, dative attre, attere)

1. A poison or toxin; that which poisons.
2. Something bitter or acrid-tasting.
3. Something purulent or pussy.
4. (figurative) A malign or corrupting thing.

• attercoppe
• attern
• attren
• attry

• English: atter
• Scots: atter, etter

• “atter, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old Norse aptr, from Proto-Germanic *aftrą, *aftrē, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep(o)teros. Compare also etter.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑtːər/
• Rhymes: -ər

atter

1. again

From Old Norse aptr, from Proto-Germanic *aftrą, *aftrē, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep(o)teros. Compare also att and etter.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑtːɛr/

atter

1. aft (in the back of a boat)
2. (chiefly poetic) again
   • 1860, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Vaaren:

     […] Heggen og Tre, som der Blomar er paa, eg atter saag bløma.

     […] once again I saw the bird cherry and the flowering trees in bloom.

• “atter” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.