midge
(mɪdʒ)
Forms: 1 micge, mycg, mygc, mygg, 4–6 mydge, 5 migge, 5–6 myge, 6 mige, myghe, 6– midge.
[OE. mycg masc., mycge wk. fem., corresponding to OS. muggia fem. (Essen glosses), MDu. mugghe (Du. mug), OHG. mucca (MHG. mucke, mücke, mod.G. mücke), Sw. mygg, mygga, Da. myg:—OTeut. types *mugjo-z, *mugjôn-. It is uncertain whether the synonymous ON. m{yacu} is related, and the alleged cognates outside Teut. are very doubtful.]
1. a. A popular name loosely applied to many small gnat-like insects; by some entomologists restricted to the Chironomidæ.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) C 947 Culix, mygg. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 54 Wið gnættas & micgeas. c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 122/7 Culex, micge. a 1340 Hampole Psalter civ. 29 He sayd & hundfle come & mydge [L. cynomia et sciniphes] in all þaire endis. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 459 Some tymes diseses man a migge or els a flee. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 172 To knit hyr nettis and hir wobbys sle, Tharwith to caucht the myghe and littill fle. 1520 M. Nisbet N. Test. in Scots Matt. xxiii. 24 Blind leidars, clengeand a myge, bot suelliand a camele. 1551 Turner Herbal i. A v b, The smoke of it [wormwood], dryueth away gnates or mydges. 1625 Purchas Pilgrims ii. 1771 margin, They are called Wall-lice, because they breed in Wals; but in true English they are called Midges, and in Latin Cimices. 1658 Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 953 These small Summer Gnats..are properly called in English Midges. 1668 Charleton Onomasticon 43 Culices..Gnats, & si parvi sunt Midges. a 1732 T. Boston Crook in Lot (1805) 88 Midges in the summer will fly about those walking abroad in a goodly attire, as well as about those in sordid apparel. 1808 Scott Fam. Lett. 31 Oct., There is a foundation for the other part of the story, though no larger than a midge's wing. 1850 Rossetti Blessed Damozel vi, Where this earth Spins like a fretful midge. 1867 F. Francis Angling vi. (1880) 236 The Green Midge, a very delicate little insect. 1886 Times 18 Aug. 10/6 The wheat midge..produces the red maggots which so seriously damage the ripening ears of corn. 1896 Kirkaldy & Pollard tr. Boas' Zoöl. 276 Midges (Nemocera) are usually slender with long antennæ, which in the males are often furnished with long hairs. |
b. Applied to a diminutive person.
| 1796 Burns Wha will buy my troggin? ix, By a thievish midge They had amaist been lost. 1847 C. Brontë J. Eyre xxxvi, A more spirited, bolder, keener gentleman than he was before that midge of a governess crossed him, you never saw, ma'am. 1866 Reader 17 Mar. 276 As compared to the men and women about him he is a mere midge. |
2. An artificial fly for fishing.
| 1799 G. Smith Laboratory II. 311 Black-midge, or gnat. Dubbing, of the down of a mole. |
3. The fry of various fishes (Funk).
Cf. mackarel-midge.
| 1832 Couch in Mag. Nat. Hist. V. 15 Midge (Ciliata glauca). Ibid. 16 It is the mackarel midge of our fishermen... For brevity's sake I have retained only the name Midge. |
4. A kind of small one-horse ‘fly’ or cab.
| 1865 C. M. Yonge Clever Woman I. ii. 52 One of the midges, or diminutive flies used at Avonmouth, came to the door. 1877 Rep. Provinc. 133 (E.D.D.) Small flys licensed to carry two or at most three persons, to be seen on all the cab-stands about Torquay, are almost always called Midges about that town. 1896 Mrs. Oliphant Old Mr. Tredgold ii. (1898) 16 [Refers to Isle of Wight.] A midge is not a graceful nor perhaps a very safe vehicle. |
5. Mining. (See
quot.)
Cf. midgy.
| 1883 Gresley Coal-mining Gloss., Midges, lamps (not safety) carried by putters, &c. |
6. attrib., as
midge-like adj.,
midge-tail;
midge cap (see
quot.);
midge fly, a midge;
midge grass,
Holcus lanatus (Britten & Holland, 1886).
| 1814 J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1857) I. 144 The labourers are under the necessity of wearing a sort of veil before their faces which they call *midgecaps. |
| 1806 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Tristia Wks. 1812 V. 259 The Bard, to kill a *Midge-fly pours her Thunder. |
| 1785 Burns Death & Dr. Hornbook xxii, Sal-alkali o' *Midge-tail clippings. |