An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Ameise

by Friedrich Kluge

Ameise, feminine, from the equivalent Middle High German ā̆meiȥe (emeze, whence Modern High German Emse), Old High German ā̆meiȥȥa, feminine, ‘ant'; note Modern High German dialectic ametze, Old High German ā̆meitza. It corresponds to Anglo-Saxon œmette, English emmet, ant. The derivation can scarcely be ascertained with certainty, as the relations of the vowels of the accented syllable are not clear; the Old High German form ămeiȥȥa evidently indicates a connection with emsig; Ameise, literally ‘the diligent (insect).’ On the other hand, Old High German â-meizza and Anglo-Saxon œ-mette point to a root mait, ‘to cut, gnaw' (see under Meißel), so that it would signify ‘gnawing insect’ (Middle High German and Old High German â- means ‘off, to pieces'). Dutch and Low German mier, ‘ant,’ is more widely diffused than Ameise, Crimean Gothic miera (Gothic *miuzjô), Anglo-Saxon mŷra, English mire, Swedish mŷra, ‘ant’; originally ‘that which lives in the moss, the moss insect,’ allied to Teutonic meuso- (see Mees). A word formed from the Latin formica is probably at the base of Swiss wurmeisle.