pismire









pismire


noun

  1. an ant.

noun

  1. an archaic or dialect word for an ant

n.“ant,” late 14c. (early 14c. as a surname), from pyss “urine” (said to be in reference to the acrid smell of an anthill) + mire “an ant,” probably from Old Norse maurr “ant” (cf. Swedish myra, Danish myre, Middle Dutch miere, Dutch mier, Crimean Gothic miera “ant”), from PIE base *morwi- (see Formica (2)). Cf. pissant, also early Dutch mierseycke (from seycke “urine”), Finnish kusiainen (from kusi “urine”). He is as angry as a pissemyre,Though þat he haue al that he kan desire.[Chaucer] Applied contemptuously to persons from 1560s.

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