pismire
English
Etymology
From Middle English pissemyre, equivalent to piss + mire (“ant”). So called due to the smell of anthills. Compare English pissant, Old Frisian pisimme, Dutch pismiere.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɪsmaɪə(ɹ)/
Noun
pismire (plural pismires)
- (UK, Ireland, archaic) An ant.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:
- Why looke you, I am whipt and ſcourg'd with rods,
Netled, and ſtung with piſmires, when I heare
Of this vile polititian, Bullingbrooke,
- 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society (2007), page 189:
- Much there is not of wonder in the confused Houses of Pismires, though much in their busie life and actions […]
- 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:
- We are scurrying emmets or pismires with our sad little comedies.
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Translations
ant — see ant
Anagrams
- impires, simpier
Middle English
Noun
pismire
- Alternative form of pissemyre