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 emmott(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 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. Formiæ, 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. Go to the emmote ô sluggard.
1659. W. Brough, Sacr. Princ., 215–6. 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.
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. 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.
