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Etymology and origin of the English word gnat

Pronunciation

gnat1 small fly

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
830 before 830, as gneat
Inherited from
Old English gnæt via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *gnattaz

Etymology

The word for the insect is inherited from Middle English gnat, also gnatte and gnet,[2] inherited from Old English gnæt, also gnætt and earlier gneat,[3][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *gnattaz,[5][4][7][8] the source too of Low German gnatte and German dialect Gnatze,[3][9][7] with Swedish dialect gnatt (“mote”).[7] Middle Low German gnitte and German Gnitze are related.[9][10] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ghnəd-,[4] and, like Merriam-Webster and Etymonline, connects it with gnaw, perhaps as "biting insect";[4][11][5] Merriam-Webster compares Middle High German gnaz (“scurf”) and Old Norse gnötra (“to rattle”).[11] Skeat recorded a claim that it was named from the whirring of its wings,[12] and Weekley asked whether it was related to Old English gnīdan (“to rub”).[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small flying insect: as gneat before 830, a spelling Barnhart calls erroneous, and as gnætt before 899, in the Old English translation of Orosius.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Old English already used the insect as a type of something trifling, in the West Saxon Gospels' version of Matthew 23:24,[3][6] and the Middle English Dictionary records the image of straining out the gnat and swallowing the fly or camel.[2] Johnson quotes the Bible's "strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel" for "any thing proverbially small".[14] John of Trevisa described the insect in the late 14th century as "a litil fflye" that "soukeþ blood", grieving sleepers with its noise and bite.[5] Chaucer has the word three times.[15] From 1787 the name was applied to other insects of similar look, and in the United States to a small stinging fly of the genus Simulium.[3] Merriam-Webster now records the midge, blackfly and sand fly, and in British use the mosquito, as well as artificial flies tied as fishing lures.[11] American speech made a measure of very small things from the insect's parts, as in to a gnat's heel, perfectly (1840), and US campus slang used the word for an unattractive man who pesters women, from 1949.[16] In Hampshire the nightjar was called the gnat-hawk.[17]

Timeline

  • before 830 – gneat, a small flying insect.[4]
  • before 899 – gnætt, in the translation of Orosius.[4][3]
  • Old English – something insignificant, after Matthew 23:24.[3]
  • c. 1250 – the spelling gnatt.[4]
  • 1787 – other insects resembling the gnat.[3]
  • 1823 – gnat-catcher, a small American bird.[5]
  • 1840 – to a gnat's heel, perfectly.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any of various small two-winged flies, many of them biting, such as a midge or blackfly: Gnats hung in a cloud over the pond.[18][11][10]
  2. (British) A mosquito, especially Culex pipiens.[11][3]
  3. A fishing fly made to look like one of these insects.[11]
  4. Something small and insignificant.[10][3][14]
  5. strain at a gnat: to fuss over a trifle.[10][2]

Word family

  • gnatlike
  • gnatcatcher
  • gnateater
  • fungus gnat

gnat2 sandpiper

Confidence
Probable
First attested
1616 Ben Jonson's Epigrams

Etymology

The word for the sandpiper is a corruption of knot, the name of the same bird,[3][10] probably influenced by gnat-snap and gnat-snapper, names of birds that catch gnats.[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The knot, a kind of sandpiper: 1616, in Ben Jonson's Epigrams.[3]

Semantic evolution

Sir Thomas Browne wrote of "gnats or knots" fattened on corn in Norfolk,[17] and Wright's dialect dictionary records the name there.[17] The Shorter Oxford marks it as obsolete except in dialect.[10]

Timeline

  • 1616 – the knot, a sandpiper, in Jonson.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect) The knot, a kind of sandpiper.[3][10][17]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b c d Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  18. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

  • hint · also from Old English
  • reed · also from Old English
  • nest · also from Old English
  • lo · also from Old English
  • inn · also from Old English
  • toe · also from Old English
  • span · also from Old English
  • ninth · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Gnat.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/gnat. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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