gnat
/næt/ noun
Forms gnats
- noun A biting insect, especially a mosquito.
- noun (informal) An annoying person.
- noun (historical) A type of jet fighter aircraft.
Etymology
From Middle English gnat, from Old English gnætt (“gnat; midge; mosquito”), from Proto-West Germanic *gnatt, *gnattu, from Proto-Germanic *gnattaz, *gnattuz (“gnat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰneHdʰn-, *gʰneHd- (“to gnaw; scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰen- (“to gnaw; bite; scratch; grind”). Cognate with Low German Gnatte (“gnat”), dialectal Swedish gnatt (“mosquito”), German Gnatz (“scabs; rash; scabies; stinginess”). Related also gnit and gnaw.
From gnat.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A blood-sucking dipterous fly, of the genus Culex, undergoing a metamorphosis in water. The females have a proboscis armed with needlelike organs for penetrating the skin of animals. These are wanting in the males. In America they are generally called mosquitoes. See Mosquito.
- noun Any fly resembling a Culex in form or habits; esp., in America, a small biting fly of the genus Simulium and allies, as the buffalo gnat, the black fly, etc. Gnat catcher (Zoöl.), one of several species of small American singing birds, of the genus Polioptila, allied to the kinglets.
Etymology [AS. gnæt.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gnat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details