anternet

noun
/ˈæntəˌnɛt/UK/ˈæn(t)ɚˌnɛt/US

Etymology

Blend of ant + internet. Coined by Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University.

  1. derived from *neHd- — “to knot, turn, twist
  2. inherited from *natją — “net
  3. inherited from *nati
  4. inherited from net
  5. inherited from net
  6. prefixed as internet — “inter + net
  7. compounded as anternet — “ant + internet

Definitions

  1. The means by which ants communicate with each other, analogous to the TCP/IP algorithm…

    The means by which ants communicate with each other, analogous to the TCP/IP algorithm that the internet uses to control the flow of data.

    • Long before researchers invented the Internet, ants invented something kind of like an anternet, and the two networks work pretty much the same way.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for anternet. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA