mosquito
UK /mɒˈskiː.təʊ/ · US /məsˈki.toʊ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms mosquitoes mosquitos mosquitoing mosquitoed muskito musquito
- noun A small flying insect of the family Culicidae, the females of which bite humans and animals and suck blood, leaving an itching bump on the skin, and sometimes carrying diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever.
- verb To fly close to the ground, seemingly without a course.
- proper noun A settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador.
- noun (historical) The De Havilland Mosquito, a Second World War military aircraft.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Spanish mosquito (“gnat”), diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca (“fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *mūs- (“fly, stinging fly, gnat”). Cognate with West Flemish meuzie (“mosquito”), dialectal Swedish mausa (“fly”), Lithuanian musė (“a fly”) and Sicilian muschitta (“midge”). See also midge. First attested in the 1580s.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any one of various species of gnats of the genus Culex and allied genera. The females have a proboscis containing, within the sheathlike labium, six fine, sharp, needlelike organs with which they puncture the skin of man and animals to suck the blood. These bites, when numerous, cause, in many persons, considerable irritation and swelling, with some pain. The larvæ and pupæ, called wigglers, are aquatic. [Written also musquito.] Mosquito bar, Mosquito net, a net or curtain for excluding mosquitoes, --used for beds and windows.
Etymology [Sp. mosquito, fr. moscafly, L. musca. Cf. Musket.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mosquito”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details