gnat

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 (“mote; particle; atom”), German Gnatz (“scabs; rash; scabies; stinginess”). Related also gnit and gnaw.

• IPA^(key): /næt/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

gnat (plural gnats)

1. Any small insect of the order Diptera, specifically within the suborder Nematocera.
2. (informal) An annoying person.
   • 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 115:

     "Away thou whining gnat, and trouble me not!"

• gnit

• midge

• Gant, T'ang, Tang, tang

• gnatte, knat, knatte, gnet

From Old English gnætt, from Proto-Germanic *gnattaz.

• IPA^(key): /ɡnat/, /ɡnɛt/

gnat (plural gnattes)

1. A gnat or similar insect.
2. Something of little worth or importance.

• English: gnat
• Scots: gnat

• “gnat, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-10-17.

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *gnatъ.

• IPA^(key): /ɡnat/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: gnat

gnat m anim (diminutive gnacik)

1. (colloquial) large bone
2. (slang) gun

• gnat in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• gnat in Polish dictionaries at PWN