emmet
(ˈɛmɪt)
Forms: 1 ǽmete, -mette, -mytte, émete, 3–4 emete, (5 ematte), 4–6 emet, (emot(e, 4 Sc. a nemot, i.e. an emot), 6 emmette, (emmont), 6–7 emmot(t(e, (9 Sc. emmock), 6– emmet. (For forms with initial a, see ant.)
[repr. OE. ǽmete wk. fem. (see ant). The OE. ǽ in stressed initial syllables frequently underwent shortening in ME., and was in that case variously represented according to dialects by ă or ĕ. Hence the two forms ămete and ĕmete; the former of which became contracted into amt, ant, while the latter retained its middle vowel and survives as emmet.]
1. a. A synonym of ant. Chiefly dial., but often used poet. or arch. horse-emmet, the Wood Ant (Formica rufa).
| c 850 Kentish Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 85 Formicæ, emetan. c 1300 Beket 2141 Faste hi schove and crope ek as emeten. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, St. Jacobus 137 Nocht a nemot. c 1450 Metr. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 625 Formica, ematte. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 138 Learne man of the simple Emmet. 1609 Bible (Douay) Prov. vi. 6 Goe to the emmote ô sluggard. 1659 W. Brough Sacr. Princ. 215 All creatures, from the emmet to the angel. 1713 Guardian (1756) II. No. 153. 273 He is an emmet of quality. 1779 Johnson Life Pope Wks. IV. 99 Looking on mankind..as on emmets of a hillock. 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 293 The horse-emmet, or great hill-ant. 1855 Singleton Virgil I. 81 Emmet, apprehending helpless eld. |
b. In Cornwall: a holiday-maker or tourist; a summer visitor. (Mildly disparaging.)
Cf. grockle.
| 1975 Sunday Express 15 June 6/3 A Devon lady mentioned in passing that emmets and grockles were about to come her way... ‘Grockles’ is favoured particularly in Devon's Torbay area, while ‘Emmets’ is the tag for tourists in Cornwall. 1984 Listener 20 Sept. 23/1 ‘Grockle’ is the Devonian word for tourist, or tripper, or summer visitor. In Cornwall the word is ‘emmet’—less difficult and more vivid because its true meaning is ‘ant’. |
2. attrib., as
emmet-swarm. Also
emmet-batch,
-but,
-cast (
dial.)
= ant-hill;
emmet-hunter (
dial.), the Wryneck (
Yunx torquilla).
| 1847–78 Halliwell *Emmet-batch, an ant-hill, Somerset. |
| 1697 W. Dampier in Phil. Trans. XX. 49 *Emett Butts. |
| Mod. Kent Dial. The field is so full of *emmet-casts. |
| 1837 Macgillivray Hist. Brit. Birds III. 100 Wryneck, [Provincial name], *Emmet-hunter. |
| 1885 Academy 10 Oct. 235 The *emmet-swarm of popular scribblers. |