What it means
A not-so-friendly Cornish word for a tourist, especially the summer lot who arrive in packs, march around with cameras, and wedge big cars down tiny lanes. Locals use it when they're fed up with the crowds and the chaos they bring. It comes from Cornish for ant, which fits, because they seem to swarm everywhere.
Usage examples
"Took me half an hour to get off the A30, then some emmets parked on the corner and blocked the lane again."
"St Ives is rammed with emmets in August, you can't get within a mile of the harbour without queueing."
"The emmets are coming next weekend, I'm doing the big food shop on Friday to avoid the chaos in Tesco."
"Can't move in town today, proper wall-to-wall emmets buying fudge and stopping dead in the middle of the pavement."
"Give it till school holidays and the whole place'll be crawling with emmets in hire cars."
Where it comes from
It comes from Cornish emmet, meaning ant. The word itself is old and ties into the same Germanic family as Old English ǣmete. In Cornwall it got turned into a local dig at tourists because they arrive in big summer swarms, filling beaches, lanes, and postcard towns all at once.
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