pismire

From Middle English pissemyre, equivalent to piss + mire (“ant”). So called due to the smell of anthills. Compare pissant.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪsmaɪə(ɹ)/

pismire (plural pismires)

1. (Britain, Ireland) An ant.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by 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.

• impires

pismire

1. Alternative form of pissemyre