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Ant comes from the Old English word æmette, which comes from the Western Germanic word amaitjo, which is derived from a compound of bases including ai- "off, away" + *mait- "cut," or which may mean something like "it that cuts off," or, "the biter." Emmet, a synonym for 'ant' which survived into the 20th century, is closer to the Old English term. Perhaps in usage it was reduced to one syllable - emmt -which lends itself more closely to ant. (from the Oxford English Dicstionary)

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17y ago

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