Mosquito
/mɒˈskiː.toʊ/noun
A small flying insect whose females bite humans and animals to feed on blood.
Did you know?English took *mosquito* from Spanish *mosquito*, literally meaning “little fly,” from *mosca* (“fly”) plus the diminutive *-ito*—so the name is not mystical, but its bite has made it a near-universal symbol of irritation and disease.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*muHs-
“to fly, to buzz”
Latin
Latin
musca
“fly”
Vulgar Latin
VL
*muscāre / muscita-
“fly-related forms that developed in Romance languages”
Old Spanish
Spanish
mosca
“fly”
15th-16th Century
Spanish
mosquito
“little fly; gnat”
17th Century
English
mosquito
“a small biting fly, especially one that sucks blood”