Otter

Etymology 1
From, from , from.

Noun

 * 1) otter

Etymology 2
From early New High German, eastern secondary form of , from. Originally the same word as, which see.

The form is based on the common dialectal development -ā- → -ō- with subsequent irregular shortening. Loss of initial n- is a common development in the Germanic languages and is due to metanalysis, i.e. the unetymological segmentation of preceding endings or articles, for example: *eine notter, dialectally *en notter → *en‿otter. The same happened in 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬. The German form was spread by Luther.

Noun

 * 1) adder
 * 2) viper

Usage notes

 * At least outside of scientific parlance, this word is chiefly restricted to compound words, to avoid confusion with Etymology 1.

Etymology
From, from. Cognates include 🇨🇬.

Noun

 * 1) otter