[Note: This entry was previously effet.]
evet n Also ebbet, effet [sEngl dial varr of eft < OE efeta; cf EDD evet] NEng, eNY obs?
A small salamander n 1; esp in comb red evet: the eastern newt (Notophthalmus viridescens).
1820 Rafinesque Annals of Nature 4, Triturus fuscus [=Desmognathus fuscus]. . . I found it in the northern parts of the state of New York, in small brooks. Vulgar name Black Ebbet. . . Triturus viridescens [=Notophthalmus v.]. . . A fine species found in Lake George, Lake Champlain, the springs and brooks of the neighborhood, &c. . . Its vulgar name is Green Ebbet. . . Triturus miniatus [=Notophthalmus viridescens]. . . A very pretty species, common in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, &c. Vulgar name Red Lizard or Red Ebbet. 1828 Webster Amer. Dict., Eft. . . A newt; an evet. [DARE Ed: There is no entry for evet.] 1852 Sun (Baltimore MD) 16 Sept 1/5 csMA, Mrs. Herschell C. Benson, of Palmer, Mass., ejected from her stomach, on the 27th ult., a live red evet or water lizard, nearly three inches in length. 1855 North Star (Danville VT) [15 Sept 3]/2 cnVT, After supper he felt a crawling motion in his stomach, and being seized with nausea went to the door and threw up with the freshly taken food in his stomach, a live red evet three and a half inches in length! . .—Montpelier Repository. 1891 Jesup Plants Hanover NH 61, Diemyctylus viridescens [=Notophthalmus v.]. . . Newt. Evet. Eft. Abundant. 1893 Youth’s Companion 66.5.iii neNY, Sometimes, in dry weather, a stray evet may be found hurrying along. . . But to see many of them one must look for them after a hard rain. 1911 Chicago Tribune (IL) 18 Oct 10/4 VT, Here, after a rain, I would find red evets [newts], which, people said, “rained down.” I often watched for them, but I never saw any come that way. 1914 U.S. Dept. Commerce Bur. Fisheries Document 783.88 swNH, Spelerpes (?) sp[ecies] (“evets”). These salamanders were quite numerous in Blodgetts Brook. They are used for black-bass bait. 1927 AmSp 3.139 ME coast, The older people spoke of . . “effet” for eft. 1938 AmSp 13.43 wVT, In my childhood I knew the little sorts [of caudate amphibians] that are found now in clear water and now under big sticks or stones among the fallen leaves of the woods, and my mother (from eastern Vermont) taught me to call them lizards; but the farm boys around my home (western Vermont) called them evets.