Blackadder

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The sardonic, scheming title character of the British television comedy series set in various periods of English history
2. A cunning, cynical anti-hero played by Rowan Atkinson in a famous British sitcom about a wily courtier and his bumbling companions
3. The witty, self-serving schemer at the centre of a celebrated British period sitcom that satirises history and power

Etymology: Blackadder is a surname, and its most striking feature is that its origin is a river rather than a person. The name is tied to a stream in the Scottish Borders, and the surname is taken from that river and the adjacent Blackadder House. The name's meaning is uncertain, which is why several competing explanations exist. One proposal combines the Irish words "fad" (length) and "dobhar" (water), giving a sense of "long river." Another traces the name to Old English "ǣdre," a word for a channel for liquids that could also mean a vein or artery, which would give a sense of "black vein" or "dark channel." Scholars doubt this, since the long vowel in Old English would probably have survived into English and Scots. A third option links it to a Brittonic river name, "ador" or "edir," possibly from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to go."