emmet

See also: Emmet

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-West Germanic *āmaitijā

Old English ǣmete

Middle English ampte

English emmet

From Middle English ampte, amte, amete, amote, ante, emete, emot, emotte, empt, empte, from Old English ǣmete, ǣmette, ǣmytte, ǣmætte (“ant”), from Proto-West Germanic *āmaitijā (“ant”), of uncertain and debated origin (q.v.), but probably from Proto-Germanic *ē- (“off, away”) + *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂y- (“to cut”). Doublet of ant.

Cognates

Cognate with Yola emotee, emothee (“ant”), West Frisian eamel, eamelder, eameler (“ant”), Alemannic German Ameisse (“ant”), Bavarian Åmasn, Åmeisn (“ant”), Cimbrian amasa (“ant”), Dutch emt (“ant”), German Ameise, Emse (“ant”), Low German Emk (“ant”), Vilamovian ömys (“ant”), Yiddish אַמייזע (ameyze, “ant”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛmɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɛmɪt

Noun

emmet (plural emmets)

1. (archaic or dialectal) An ant.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 47:

     He told him that he saw a vast multitude and a promiscuous, their habitations like molehills, the men as emmets […]

   • 1666, Dr. Edmund King, Philosophical Transactions (1665-1678) Observations Concerning Emmets or Ants, Their Eggs, Production, Progress, Coming to Maturity, Use, &c
   • before 1729, Edward Taylor, "Meditation. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare a place for you":

     What shall a Mote up to a Monarch rise?

     An Emmet match an Emperor in might?

   • 1789, William Blake, “A Dream”, in Songs of Innocence:

     Once a dream did weave a shade / O'er my angel-guarded bed / That an emmet lost its way / Where on grass methought I lay.

   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, IV.430:

     [A benignity that] to the emmet gives / Her foresight, and intelligence that makes / The tiny creatures strong by social league.

   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:

     We are scurrying emmets or pismires with our sad little comedies.

2. (Cornwall, derogatory) A tourist.

Derived terms

• four-legged emmet

References

• “emmet”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
• “emmet”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

• Temme

Estonian

Noun

emmet

1. partitive singular of emme