| 释义 |
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).
c850Kentish Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 85 Formicæ, emetan. c1300Beket 2141 Faste hi schove and crope ek as emeten. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, St. Jacobus 137 Nocht a nemot. c1450Metr. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 625 Formica, ematte. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 138 Learne man of the simple Emmet. 1609Bible (Douay) Prov. vi. 6 Goe to the emmote ô sluggard. 1659W. Brough Sacr. Princ. 215 All creatures, from the emmet to the angel. 1713Guardian (1756) II. No. 153. 273 He is an emmet of quality. 1779Johnson Life Pope Wks. IV. 99 Looking on mankind..as on emmets of a hillock. 1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 293 The horse-emmet, or great hill-ant. 1855Singleton Virgil I. 81 Emmet, apprehending helpless eld.
b. In Cornwall: a holiday-maker or tourist; a summer visitor. (Mildly disparaging.) Cf. grockle.
1975Sunday 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. 1984Listener 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).
1847–78Halliwell *Emmet-batch, an ant-hill, Somerset.
1697W. Dampier in Phil. Trans. XX. 49 *Emett Butts.
Mod. Kent Dial. The field is so full of *emmet-casts.
1837Macgillivray Hist. Brit. Birds III. 100 Wryneck, [Provincial name], *Emmet-hunter.
1885Academy 10 Oct. 235 The *emmet-swarm of popular scribblers. |