contraction of are n’t, are not; colloquially for am not; and in illiterate or dialect speech for is not, has not (han’t). A later and still more illiterate form is AINT, q.v.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv. (1711), I. I. 24. But if your Eyes a’n’t quick of Motion, They’ll play the Rogue, that gave the Caution.
1734. Fielding, Old Man, 1007/1. Ha, ha, ha! an’t we? no! How ignorant it is! Ibid. (1737), Hist. Reg., I. i. No more I an’t, sir.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr. (1873), 69. No, that a’nt it, says he.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, lxii. (1853), 172. A’n’t we behind hand?
1864. Tennyson, North. Farm., xiii. A mow! ’a taäken Joänes, as ’ant a ’aäpoth o’ sense.
