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A newt is a semiaquatic amphibian of the family Salamandridae, although not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts. Newts are classified as a part of the salamandrid subfamily Pleurodelinae, and can be found in North America, Europe and Asia. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental life stages: aquatic larva, terrestrial juvenile (called an eft), and adult. Adult newts have lizard-like bodies and may be either fully aquatic, living permanently in the water, or semiaquatic, living terrestrially, but returning to the water every year to breed. ==Names== The Old English name of the animal was ''efte, efeta'' (of unknown origin), resulting in Middle English ''eft''; this word was transformed irregularly into ''euft'', ''evete'', or ''ewt(e)''. The initial 'n' was added from the indefinite article 'an' by provection (juncture loss) by the early 15th century.〔Oxford English Dictionary; 〕 The form 'newt' appears to have arisen as a dialectal variant of ''eft'' in Staffordshire, but entered Standard English by the Early Modern period (used by Shakespeare in ''Macbeth'' iv.1).〔The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, Volume 47 (1777), (p. 321 ).〕 The regular form ''eft'', now only used for newly metamorphosed specimens, survived alongside ''newt'', especially in composition, the larva being called "water-eft" and the mature form "land-eft" well into the 18th century, but use of the simplex "eft" as equivalent to "water-eft" has been in use since at least the 17th century.〔John Wilkins, ''An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language'' (1668), (p. 161 ). "the water-eft, or newt, is only the larva of the land-eft, as tadpoles are of frogs." Gilbert White, ''The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton'' (1789) (p. 50 ). "the ''salamandra aquatica'' of Hay, (the water-newt, or eft,)" Archibald Constable, ''Constable's miscellany of original and selected publications in the various departments of literature, science, & the arts'', Volume 45 (1829), (p. 63 ). 〕 Dialectal English and Scots also has the word ''ask'' (also ''awsk, esk'' in Scots〔 John Jamieson, ''An etmological dictionary of the Scottish language'' (1818)〕) used for both newts and wall lizards, from Old English ''āþexe'', from Proto-Germanic '' *agiþahsijǭ'', literally "lizard-badger" (compare German ''Eidechse'' and ''Echse''; '' *agi-'' is ultimately cognate with Greek ὄφις, from Proto-Indo-European '' *ogʷʰis''〔Pfeifer, ''Etymologisches Wörterbuch'' s.v. (Eidechse ).〕). Latin had the name ''stellio'' for a type of spotted newt, now used for species of the ''Stellagama'' genus. Ancient Greek had the name κορδύλος, presumably for the water newt (immature newt, eft).〔(Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon )〕 German has ''Molch'', from Middle High German ''mol'', ''olm'', like the English term of unknown etymology. Newts are also known as ''Tritones'' (viz., named for the mythological Triton) in historical literature, and "triton" remains in use as common name in some Romance languages, in Greek, and in Russian. The systematic name ''Tritones'' was introduced alongside Pleurodelinae by Tschudi in 1838, based on the type genus named ''Triton'' by Laurenti in 1768. Laurenti's ''Triton'' was renamed to ''Triturus'' ("Triton-tail") by Rafinesque in 1815.〔 Alain Dubois and Roger Bour, ''(The nomenclatural status of the nomina of amphibians and reptiles created by Garsault (1764), with a parsimonious solution to an old nomenclatural problem regarding the genus Bufo (Amphibia, Anura), comments on the taxonomy of this genus, and comments on some nomina created by Laurenti (1768) )'', Zootaxa 2447 (2010), 1–52. 〕 Tschudi's Pleurodelinae is based on the type genus ''Pleurodeles'' (ribbed newt) named by Michahelles in 1830 (the name meaning "having prominent ribs", formed from πλευρά "ribs" and δῆλος "conspicuous"). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Newt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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