Mid 19th century; earliest use found in John Jamieson (1759–1838), antiquary and philologist. From the unattested Norn reflex of the early Scandinavian word represented by Swedish regional myrla, Danish regional myrle, both in sense ‘to swarm, teem’, of uncertain origin: perhaps from the Scandinavian base of Old Swedish myr ant + the Scandinavian base of Old Swedish -la; with the development of sense compare Middle French, French fourmiller to swarm, teem, (of the skin, etc.) to crawl like ants from Middle French formier to crawl like ants, swarm, teem, tingle, twinkle (11th cent. in Old French in form fromier; from classical Latin formīcāre (of the skin) to crawl like ants) + -iller, frequentative suffix.