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Added 9 October 2026

mosquito

/mɒˈskiː.təʊ/ noun

In Latin: culex First recorded: 1580 Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about mosquito at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Two-winged insect whose female has a long proboscis to pierce the skin and suck the blood of humans and animals.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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