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Webster 1913 Edition

Salamander

Sal′a-manˊder

,
Noun.
[F.
salamandre
, L.
salamandra
, Gr. [GREEK]; cf. Per.
samander
,
samandel
.]
1.
(Zool.)
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.
☞ The salamanders have, like lizards, an elongated body, four feet, and a long tail, but are destitute of scales. They are true Amphibia, related to the frogs. Formerly, it was a superstition that the salamander could live in fire without harm, and even extinguish it by the natural coldness of its body.
I have maintained that
salamander
of yours with fire any time this two and thirty years.
Shakespeare
Whereas it is commonly said that a
salamander
extinguisheth fire, we have found by experience that on hot coals, it dieth immediately.
Sir T. Browne.
2.
(Zool.)
The pouched gopher (
Geomys tuza
) of the Southern United States.
3.
A culinary utensil of metal with a plate or disk which is heated, and held over pastry, etc., to brown it.
4.
A large poker.
[Prov. Eng.]
Halliwell.
5.
(Metal.)
Solidified material in a furnace hearth.
Giant salamander
.
(Zool.)
See under
Giant
.
–
Salamander’s hair
or
Salamander's wool
(Min.)
,
a species of asbestos or mineral flax.
[Obs.]
Bacon.

Webster 1828 Edition

Salamander

SAL'AMANDER

,
Noun.
[L. Gr. salamandra.] An animal of the genus Lacerta or Lizard, one of the smaller species of the genus, not being more than six or seven inches in length. It has a short cylindrical tail, four toes on the four feet, and a naked body. The skin is furnished with small excrescences like teats, which are full of holes from which oozes a milky liquor that spreads over the skin, forming a kind of transparent varnish. The eyes are placed in the upper part of the head. The color is dark, with a bluish cast on the belly, intermixed with irregular yellow spots. This animal is oviparous, inhabits cold damp places among trees or hedges, avoiding the heat of the sun. The vulgar story of its being able to endure fire, is a mistake.
Salamander's hair or wool, a name given to a species of asbestos or mineral flax; I believe no long used.

Definition 2024

Salamander

Salamander

See also: salamander

German

Noun

Salamander m ‎(genitive Salamanders, plural Salamander)

  1. salamander

Declension

salamander

salamander

See also: Salamander

English

a fire salamander (amphibian)

Noun

salamander ‎(plural salamanders)

  1. A long, slender, chiefly terrestrial amphibian of the order Caudata, superficially resembling a lizard.
    • 1672, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1852, Simon Wilkin (editor), The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 1, page 292,
      […] and most plainly Pierius, whose words in his hieroglyphicks are these: "Whereas it is commonly said that a salamander extinguisheth fire, we have found by experience that it is so far from quenching hot coals, that it dyeth immediately therein."
    • 2012 January 1, Douglas Larson, “Runaway Devils Lake”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 46:
      Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.
  2. (mythology) A creature much like a lizard that is resistant to and lives in fire, hence the elemental being of fire.
    • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, The Understanding Heart, Chapter XI
      “Not a chance, Ranger,” Bob Mason was speaking. “This little cuss is a salamander. He's been travelling through fire all day and there isn't a blister on him. …”
    • 1849, John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of Our Vulgar and Provincial Customs, Ceremonies, and Superstitions, Volume 3, page 372
      "There is a vulgar error," says the author of the Brief Natural History, p. 91, "that a salamander lives in the fire. Yet both Galen and Dioscorides refute this opinion; and Mathiolus, in his Commentaries upon Dioscorides, a very famous physician, affirms of them, that by casting of many a salamander into the fire for tryal he found it false. The same experiment is likewise avouched by Joubertus."
  3. (cooking) A metal utensil with a flat head which is heated and put over a dish to brown the top.
    • 1977, Richard Daunton-Fear, Penelope Vigar, Australian Colonial Cookery (discussing 19th century cookery), Rigby, 1977, ISBN 0-7270-0187-6, page 41
      The salamander, a fairly long metal utensil with a flat rounded head, was left in the fire until red hot and then used to brown the top of a dish without further cooking.
  4. (cooking) A small broiler, used in professional cookery primarily for browning.
    The chef first put the steak under the salamander to sear the outside.
    • 2006, Frank Saxon, editor, Tolley's Industrial and Commercial Gas Installation Practice [Gas Service Technology; 3], 4th edition, Oxford; Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Newnes, ISBN 978-0-75-066947-4, page 35:
      Overfired grills, or salamanders, can, in addition, be used for making toast and salamandering. They have the heat source above the food […] . This may comprise sets of burners firing below refractory or metal frets, or surface combustion plaques.
  5. The pouched gopher, Geomys tuza, of the southern United States.
  6. (Britain, obsolete) A large poker.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)
  7. (metallurgy) Solidified material in a furnace hearth.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

salamander ‎(third-person singular simple present salamanders, present participle salamandering, simple past and past participle salamandered)

  1. To use a salamander (cooking utensil) in a cooking process.
    • 19th century (quoted 1977), recipe in Richard Daunton-Fear, Penelope Vigar, Australian Colonial Cookery, Rigby, ISBN 978-0-7270-0187-0, page 41:
      When cold, sprinkle the custard thickly with sugar and salamander it.
    • 2006, Frank Saxon, editor, Tolley's Industrial and Commercial Gas Installation Practice [Gas Service Technology; 3], 4th edition, Oxford; Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Newnes, ISBN 978-0-75-066947-4, page 35:
      Overfired grills, or salamanders, can, in addition, be used for making toast and salamandering. They have the heat source above the food […] . This may comprise sets of burners firing below refractory or metal frets, or surface combustion plaques.

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

salamander m ‎(plural salamanders, diminutive salamandertje n)

  1. salamander

Etymology

From Middle English salamandre, from Old French salamandre, from Latin salamandra, from Ancient Greek σαλαμάνδρα ‎(salamándra), of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsæləˌmændə/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈsæləˌmændɚ/
  • Hyphenation: sal‧a‧man‧der

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