varmint
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Dialectal form of vermin, derived from Latin vermis (“worm”), c. 1530–1540s.[1] Perhaps influenced by Latin vargus (“bandit, outlaw, scoundrel”), though the pronunciation in /ɑː(ɹ)/ is more likely due to the same lowering of /ɛr/ > /ar/ found in carve < Middle English kerven and starve < Middle English sterven. The final syllable is probably altered after -ment; compare parchment < Middle English parchemyn.[2]
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈvɑːmɪnt/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈvɑɹmɪnt/
Audio (General American): (file)
Noun
[edit]varmint (plural varmints)
- A pestilent or predatory ground-borne animal, especially one that kills or harasses a farmer's animals or crops.[3]
- 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:
- Its windows were merely open spaces in the walls, which in the summertime were covered with greasy strips of cheesecloth to keep out the varmints that feasted on Maycomb’s refuse.
The varmints had a lean time of it, […]
- (by extension) An obnoxious person or troublemaker.
- 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, pages 36-37:
- You'd be but a fierce young hound indeed, if at your time of life you could help to hunt a wretched warmint, hunted as near death and dunghill as this poor wretched warmint is!
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]pestering animal
person who is obnoxious
References
[edit]- ^ “varmint”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909), A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)[1], volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 7.62, page 220.
- ^ McDavid, Raven Ioor Jr. (1943), “42. Review of Hall 1942: The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech”, in William A. Kretzschmar, Jr., editor, Dialects in culture: essays in general dialectology[2], University, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, published 1979, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 322.
