The story
- Old English · inherited fromātorcoppe“spider”
- Middle English · inherited fromattercoppe
- English todayattercop
From Middle English attercoppe, from Old English ātorcoppe (“spider”), corresponding to atter (“poison, venom”) + cop (“spider”). The latter is still to be found in the English word cobweb. Cognate to Danish edderkop (“spider”) and Norwegian edderkopp (“spider”).
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishattercoppe all →
coppe
Old Englishātorcoppe all →
cobwebcoppe
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.