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Definition of pismire - 4 dictionary results

pis⋅mire

  [pis-mahyuhr, piz-]
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–noun
an ant.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME pissemyre, equiv. to pisse to urinate + obs. mire ant, perh. < Scand (cf. Dan myre, Sw myra), c. D mier; pejorative name from stench of formic acid proper to ants
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pis·mire   (pĭs'mīr', pĭz'-)   
n.  An ant.

[Middle English pissemyre : pisse, urine (from the smell of the formic acid that ants secrete); see piss + mire, ant (probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish myre).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Pismire

Pis"mire\, n. [Piss + mire; so called because it discharges a moisture vulgarly considered urine. See Mire an ant.] (Zo["o]l.) An ant, or emmet.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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pismire 
c.1386, from pyss "urine" (in reference to the acrid smell of an anthill) + mire "an ant," probably from O.N. maurr "ant," perhaps distantly connected with Gk. myrmex, L. formica "ant." Cf. pissant, also early Du. mierseycke (from seycke "urine"), Finn. kusiainen (from kusi "urine").
"He is an angry as a pissemyre,
Though þat he haue al that he kan desire."
[Chaucer]
Applied contemptuously to persons from 1569.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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