Also 7 ascar. [f. ASK sb.2 with suffix of uncertain origin; also altered to askerd, ascard, askal, asgal, asgil.] Common name of the newt in the west midland counties of England.
1674. Ray, N. Countr. Wds., Asker; a Newt, or Eft.
1677. J. Webster, Witchcr., xii. 242. Strange vomitings up of Frogs, lizards, askers and the like … attributed to witchcraft.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 252. It differs in colour from all the Newts or Ascars that ever I saw.
1755. Johnson, Asker a water newt.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1802), IV. xxvii. 126. A Newt or an Asker, or some such detested reptile.
In the following Dialect Glossaries: Craven (Asker, Askard), Mid Yorksh. (Ask, aisk, or askerd), Lancash., Shropsh. (Asker, askal, asgal), West Worcester (Asgill), Dorset (Phil. Soc. Trans., 1864, 41).
