varmint means A pestilent or predatory ground-borne animal, especially one that kills or harasses a farmer's animals or crops. It carries an Arena rating of 1649, earned across 57 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, varmint ranks #196 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #215 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,713 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #1,756 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
varmint is pronounced /ˈvɑːmɪnt/.
Why “varmint” is a great word
VARMINT — [Noun] A troublesome or destructive animal, especially one that preys on livestock or crops, or an obnoxious or troublesome person. A dialectal variant of 'vermin', from Latin vermis ("worm"). The pronunciation shift is due to a regular sound change of Middle English /ɛr/ before a consonant to /ar/, and the final /t/ is likely a parasitic addition influenced by words ending in -ment. First attested c. 1530–1540s. Unlike "vermin" (a formal, collective term evoking disease and filth) or "critter" (a neutral, often affectionate colloquialism for any creature), "varmint" is a singular indictment of predatory nuisance. It is the glint in a coyote's eye at the edge of the henhouse, the systematic gnawing of a groundhog beneath the corn rows, and the specific, grinning insolence of a human who delights in petty chaos—a word that names not just a pest, but a personal adversary in the quiet war against disorder.
Etymology
Dialectal form of vermin, derived from Latin vermis (“worm”), c. 1530–1540s. 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.
noun
- A pestilent or predatory ground-borne animal, especially one that kills or harasses a farmer's animals or crops.
- An obnoxious person or troublemaker.e.g.“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!” — 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, pages 36-37:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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