mite

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See also: mité, mitë, mī-tê, and Mite

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
A rust mite

Etymology

From Middle English mite, from Old English mīte (“mite, tiny insect”), from Proto-West Germanic *mītā, from Proto-Germanic *mītǭ (“biting insect”, literally “cutter”), from *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small”) or *meh₂y- (“to cut”). Akin to Old High German mīza (“mite”), Middle Dutch mīte (“moth, mite”), Dutch mijt (“moth, mite”), Danish mide (“mite”).

Pronunciation

Noun

mite (plural mites)

  1. Any of many minute arachnids which, along with the ticks, comprise subclass Acarina (aka Acari).
  2. A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing.
  3. A lepton, a small coin used in Palestine in the time of Christ.
  4. A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.
  5. (sometimes used adverbially) Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle.
    a mite
    • 1903 March 17, Mark Twain, letter to Helen Keller:
      It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other important thing — and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. He added his little mite — that is all he did.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      "Well," I says, "I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough." She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.
    • 1956, Janice Holt Giles, chapter 8, in Hannah Fowler, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC; republished Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 1992, →ISBN, page 69:
      "Silas, now," Esther Whitley had said, "would be a good one for you, Hannah. He's a mite on the old side, but he's steady, an' he's been wed before. He knows the ways of a woman better'n some."
    • 1959, Frances Cavanah, Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance, Chicago, Ill.: Rand McNally, →OCLC; Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance (ReadHowYouWant Classics Library), EasyRead large edition, U.S.A.: ReadHowYouWant, 2008, →ISBN, page 30:
      Those trousers are a mite too big, but you'll soon grow into them.
  6. (colloquial, often used affectionately) A small or naughty person, or one people take pity on; rascal.
    • 2014, Lorraine F Elli, The Little Town Mouse:
      “Tom told me that, but twasn't your fault, the little mite just couldn't wait to be born that's all.” A small smile played on Leah's lips.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

lepton — see lepton
rascal — see rascal

Verb

mite

  1. Eye dialect spelling of might.

Anagrams

Au

Noun

mite

  1. woman

References

  • transnewguinea.org, citing D. C. Laycock, Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea (1968), Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mythos.

Pronunciation

Noun

mite m (plural mites)

  1. myth

Related terms

Further reading

French

French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French, from Old French mitte (“kind of insect which gnaws on cloth or cheese”), from Middle Dutch mīte (“moth, mite”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *mītǭ (“biting insect”, literally “cutter”), from *maitaną (“to cut”).

Akin to Old English mīte (“mite, tiny insect”), Old High German mīza (“mite”), Danish mide (“mite”).

Pronunciation

Noun

mite f (plural mites)

  1. mite (arachnid)
  2. moth, particularly one whose larva destroys something stored by humans

Derived terms

Related terms

Verb

mite

  1. inflection of miter:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

Anagrams

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mītem (“mild, mature”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

mite (plural miti)

  1. mild
  2. moderate (price)
  3. balmy, mild (climate)
    quest'anno è stato un gennaio mite
    January has been mild this year
  4. meek (animal)

Derived terms

Further reading

  • mite in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

Latin

Pronunciation

Adjective

mīte

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of mītis

References

  • “mite”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “mite”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Norman

Etymology

From Old French mitte (“kind of insect which gnaws on cloth or cheese”), from Middle Dutch mīte (“moth, mite”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *mītǭ (“biting insect”, literally “cutter”).

Noun

mite f (plural mites)

  1. (Jersey) mite

Portuguese

Verb

mite

  1. inflection of mitar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Volapük

Noun

mite

  1. dative singular of mit
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