Issue 170, page 1 |Search||Home||FAQ||Links||Site map||Book
Store||New||Ask Us||Theory||About| In its entry on ant, the
austere Oxford English Dictionary, after a blunt definition of
the insect, permits itself a rare outburst of enthusiasm: This
was written in the late 1800s and still remains true. Books such
as The Journey to the Ants reveal complex worlds more alien and
bizarre than any found in science fiction (and they're just
outside your back door!). The Old English word for ant was
aemete which meant a "biter-off". Sometime in the 1300s, this
word acquired a "p" to become the Middle English ampte. Over
time, much as accompte lost its "p" to become account, ampte
turned into our modern word ant. In some dialects an "ant" is
still called an emmet, though. There are many English words for
"ant" but the most obscure must be calicrat. This poetic term
alludes to Callicrates, a Greek artist who, according to Pliny,
carved ants and other small animals in ivory. Some words sound a
lot worse than their real mea