Midge

Pronunciation

• enPR: mÄ­j, IPA: /mɪdÊ’/
• Rhymes: -ɪdÊ’

Origin

From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English mygg, mycg ("midge, gnat"), from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, *muwō ("midge"), from Proto-Indo-European *mū- ("fly, midge"), *mu-, *mew-. Cognate with Scots mige ("midge"), West Frisian mich ("fly, mosquito"), Dutch mug ("midge, gnat, mosquito"), 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, Russian муха, Latvian muša, Albanian mizë, Armenian մուն.

Full definition of midge

Noun

1. 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.
• 2012-01, Douglas Larson, Runaway Devils Lake, Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. … The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.

Derived terms