vermin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vermin, also vermine and vermen,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vermin and Old French vermin, also vermine,^[3][4][5][2] from Vulgar Latin *vermīnum, also *vermīna,^[3][5][6] from Latin vermis (“worm”).^[3][4][7][8] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the first third of the 12th century, for worms and maggots and for harmful creatures.^[9] Klein starts instead from Vulgar Latin *vermineus (“pertaining to worms”),^[10] and Weekley treated the French word as a collective of Old French verm (“worm”).^[11] The Latin noun comes ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wrmi-, which also gave worm;^[7] Etymonline writes *urmi- (“snake, worm”), after de Vaan, and notes that Watkins refers it to *wer- (“to turn, bend”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Animals regarded as dangerous or foul, such as snakes and toads: about 1330, in Kyng Alisaunder, "In desert…he destroid þe vermine", a poem that Barnhart and the Middle English Dictionary date to probably before 1300.^[2][5] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300 and Collins to the 13th century.^[4][12] The OED quotes the poem from a manuscript of before 1400, and has the insect sense first, in R. Rolle's Pricke of Conscience of about 1340.^[3]

Semantic evolution

At first the word covered any animal regarded as harmful or repulsive, especially reptiles.^[13][14][2] Trench notes that it had none of the later limit to the smaller kinds: the Geneva Bible has vermen in Acts xxviii. 5, and Holland calls the crocodile a dangerous vermin.^[15] From about 1340 it also meant creeping insects and other small invertebrates,^[3][5] especially parasites such as lice, bedbugs and fleas,^[4] and Chaucer has it for both animal and insect pests.^[16] Among gamekeepers and farmers it came to mean animals and birds that prey on game or crops:^[3][11] in Surrey the keepers' list took in hawks, owls, magpies and jays, while in west Somerset the word was never used of snakes or parasites.^[17] It could also mean a kind of such animals (about 1386, in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale) or a single one (about 1460 to 1809).^[3] From 1562 it was used of contemptible people collectively, then from 1581 of one such person;^[3][5] Johnson (1773) lists this as a use "in contempt of human beings".^[18] The dialect variant varmint is recorded from the 1530s as varment, and as varmint from 1829;^[4][5] in dialect the word could be a term of abuse, or a playful name for a mischievous child.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – animals regarded as dangerous or foul, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[2]
• c. 1340 – insects and other small invertebrates, especially parasites.^[3][5]
• c. 1386 – a kind or group of such animals.^[3]
• c. 1460 – a single such animal (obsolete by 1809).^[3]
• 1562 – contemptible people, collectively.^[3][5]
• 1573 – verb, to clear of vermin (obsolete).^[3]
• 1581 – one contemptible person.^[3]
• 1602 – adjective, verminous (obsolete).^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Small common animals, such as rats, mice or cockroaches, that do harm or carry disease and are hard to control; treated as plural.^{[8][12][19][14]}
2. Parasitic insects or worms, such as lice and bedbugs.^[20][19][3]
3. Birds and mammals that prey on game, farm animals or crops: The keeper shot crows and other vermin.^{[8][19][3][20]}
4. A person or people regarded as loathsome or harmful; plural vermin.^{[12][8][19][3]}
5. (obsolete, c. 1460–1809) A single harmful animal or insect.^[3][13]

Word family

• verminous

Related words

• varmint
• worm
• vermicelli
• vermicular
• vermiculite
• vermifuge
• vermilion

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
20. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press