🪱 A limbless amphibian 🦎 A legless lizard

blindworm

1 9.9

A small legless lizard with tiny eyes found in Europe under leaves

noun
/ˈblaɪndwɜːm/

: lución

During our nature walk, we came across a blindworm hiding under a rock in the garden.

Examples

The gardener spotted a blindworm slithering through the damp soil in search of food.
Children are often amazed to see a blindworm, mistaking it for a snake due to its smooth, legless body.
On the other hand, there are many lizards and blindworms.

Fiction book (1998)

Synonyms

slowworm

vsblindworm

1 9.9

A small lizard without legs that looks like a snake

is associated with a folk belief that it is blind rather than a snake

Anguis fragilis

vsblindworm

Specialized

9.9

A small legless lizard that looks like a snake

is the informal popular name tied to a folk belief of blindness

Surface Forms

blindworm singular

blindworms plural

Morphology

blindworm = blind + worm (semi-transparent) = blind + worm

The compound 'blind' + 'worm' straightforwardly describes a small legless creature thought to be blind, but 'worm' here refers to a legless lizard rather than a true worm.

Etymology

Blindworm comes from blind ('not able to see') and worm (from old wyrm, 'worm' or 'snake'), because people once thought the animal was blind and worm-like. So the name stayed for the slow, legless European lizard even though it is actually a lizard with very small eyes.