mosquito

mosquito
\ \ [16] Mosquito comes ultimately from the Latin word forfly’, musca (this went back to an Indo-European base *mu-, probably imitative of the sound of humming, which also produced English midge [OE], and hence its derivative midget [19] – originally atiny sand-fly’). Musca became Spanish mosca, whose diminutive form reached English as mosquitoetymologically asmall fly’. (The Italian descendant of musca, incidentally, is also mosca, and its diminutive, moschetto, was applied with black humour to thebolt of a crossbow’. From it English gets musket [16].)
\ \ Cf.MIDGE, MIDGET, MUSKET

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • MOSQUITO — ou MISKI Indiens d’Amérique centrale vivant dans le nord est de l’actuel Nicaragua et, en moindre nombre, à la frontière du Honduras, les Mosquito furent découverts par Christophe Colomb en 1502, lors de son quatrième voyage; toutefois, la… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Mosquito — Mos*qui to (m[o^]s*k[=e]*t[ o]), n.; pl. {Mosquitoes} (m[o^]s*k[=e]*t[=o]z). [Sp. mosquito, fr. moscafly, L. musca. Cf. {Musket}.] (Zo[ o]l.) Any one of various species of gnats of the genus {Culex} and allied genera. The females have a proboscis …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Mosquito — (spanisch, „kleine Fliege“, von lateinisch musca, „Fliege“) steht für ein blutsaugendes Insekt, siehe Stechmücken De Havilland Mosquito, ein Flugzeugbaumuster Mosquito Motor, einen Zweitaktmotor The Mosquito, ein Geräuschsender zur Vertreibung… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • mosquito — CHÍ / s. n. limbă vorbită de indigenii din Honduras şi Nicaragua. (< fr. mosquito) Trimis de raduborza, 15.09.2007. Sursa: MDN …   Dicționar Român

  • mosquito — (n.) 1580s, from Sp. mosquito little gnat, dim. of mosca fly, from L. musca fly, from PIE root *mu gnat, fly, imitative of insect buzzing (Cf. Skt. maksa , Gk. myia, O.E. mycg, Modern English MIDGE (Cf. midge), O.C.S …   Etymology dictionary

  • mosquito — s. m. [Entomologia] Inseto díptero de que há várias espécies …   Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa

  • mosquito — has the plural form mosquitoes …   Modern English usage

  • mosquito — sustantivo masculino 1. (macho y hembra) Culex pipiens. Insecto delgado y pequeño de patas largas, cuyas hembras tienen un órgano con el que chupan la sangre de los mamíferos y producen una picadura molesta …   Diccionario Salamanca de la Lengua Española

  • mosquito — (Del dim. de mosco). 1. m. Insecto díptero, de tres a cuatro milímetros de largo, cuerpo cilíndrico de color pardusco, cabeza con dos antenas, dos palpos en forma de pluma y una trompa recta armada interiormente de un aguijón; pies largos y muy… …   Diccionario de la lengua española

  • mosquito — ► NOUN (pl. mosquitoes) ▪ a small slender fly, some kinds of which transmit parasitic diseases through the bite of the bloodsucking female. ORIGIN Spanish and Portuguese, little fly …   English terms dictionary

  • mosquito — [mə skēt′ō] n. pl. mosquitoes or mosquitos [Sp & Port, dim. of mosca < L musca, a fly: see MIDGE] any of a large family (Culicidae) of two winged dipteran insects, the females of which have skin piercing mouthparts used to extract blood from… …   English World dictionary

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