midge
Meanings
Plural: midges
Noun
- minute two-winged mosquito-like fly lacking biting mouthparts; appear in dancing swarms especially near water
- Any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all belonging to the order Diptera.
- A small, short or insignificant person.
- Any bait or lure designed to resemble a midge.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English mygg, myċġ (“midge, gnat”), from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mū- (“fly, midge”), *mu-, *mew-.
The dialectal sense of "short person" was originally figurative, and gave rise to midget (“short person”) via the diminutive suffix -et, which has since become part of standard English with that meaning; this has caused midge to undergo rebracketing as a clipping of midget.
Cognates
* Scots mige (“midge”)
* Saterland Frisian Määge (“gnat, mosquito”)
* West Frisian mich (“fly, mosquito”)
* West Flemish meezje (“midge, mosquito”)
* Dutch mug (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* German Low German Mügge (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* German Mücke (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* Swedish mygg, mygga (“midge, gnat, mosquito”)
* Icelandic mý (“midge, gnat, fly”)
The Proto-Indo-European root was also the source of
* Latin musca
* Ancient Greek μυῖα (muîa)
* Russian му́ха (múxa)
* Latvian muša
* Czech muchnička
* Albanian mizë
* Armenian մուն (mun)
Scrabble Score: 9
midge is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordmidge is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
midge is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary