mosquito

mosquito
\ \ [16] Mosquito comes ultimately from the Latin word for ‘fly’, 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 a ‘tiny sand-fly’). Musca became Spanish mosca, whose diminutive form reached English as mosquito – etymologically a ‘small fly’. (The Italian descendant of musca, incidentally, is also mosca, and its diminutive, moschetto, was applied with black humour to the ‘bolt 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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