It is in every online dictionary I checked, and yet…
My grandkids love the Peter Rabbit DVD which we’re watching right this minute. It’s plainly an old British production, and all the accents are delightfully accurate.
Here’s the rub.
Mr. McGregor, in his strong Scottish burr, curses Peter as a “…wee varmint!!!”
Could it be that the word has a scottish, not a U.S. origin?
It wouldn’t surprise me a bit. It was certainly used here in these parts and in Appalachia, both of which had substantial populations of Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) folks.
Also, I note that at least one dictionary traces it back to the 1500s, which would predate any significant English settlement on North America.
RR
Etymology is from vermin derived from Latin vermis meaning “worm”. A term usually used in Westerns about undesirable animal pests or people.*
*from wiki’s wiktionary.
Online dictionaries date it back to 1539 or thereabouts, so it isn’t of American origin.
“Varmint” is simply a dialectal version of “vermin”. It is first recorded in 1539, and so pre-dates the English settlement of America. Like many British dialect words it was exported to America and survived there after (almost) dying out in Britain.
Bolding mine –
OED tells me that its first use in the context of a derogatory term for people and not animals (which seems to be how you encounter it most in Westerns – “An objectionable or troublesome person or persons; a mischievous boy or child”) dates to 1773. It made an appearance in this capacity in Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), showing it to be in common (or at least colloquial) usage in England at that point.
Similar to creature/cratur/critter.
For a minute there I thought you meant online dictionaries dating back to 1539.
…Maybe you’d looked it up on Ye Wickiepaediae?
Sailboat
You don’t hear it here. ‘Vermin’ has a legal definition; some pest animals are, and some aren’t. If your gun is only licenced ‘for control of vermin’ you can get done for shooting other pests, e.g. dogs attacking livestock.
“What be your baud rate?”
“Three.”
“'s Blood, many’s the day I’ve dreamed of so great a transfer speed!”
That’s the one McCain invented.
I don’t think there’s anything particularly Scottish about it. The change in vowel pronunciation is found in varsity=from university, clark=clerk, and the pronunciation of sergeant.
:d:d:d