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> What makes mosquitoes so dangerous? Despite their innocuous-sounding name—Spanish for “little fly”—they carry devastating diseases. Spanish for "little fly"
by ogig 12y ago
> What makes mosquitoes so dangerous? Despite their innocuous-sounding name—Spanish for “little fly”—they carry devastating diseases.
Spanish for "little fly" could be "mosquita", a diminutive of "mosca" (fly). Mosquito is the spanish term for mosquito. While mosquito and mosca share the same latin origin "musca" i dont think any spanish speaker will understand mosquito as little fly.
Just a nitpick in case you were going to amaze someone with magazine learned spanish terms.
- ibmthrowaway218 12y agoThe diminutive can be -ita or -ito depending on gender. They may understand it as "mosquito" rather than "little fly" but that is a valid literal translation, just like "gatito" is "kitten" but the literal translation would be diminutive-of-cat -> "little cat".
- ogig 12y agoMosca has no male form, it would be a female mosca, or a male mosca. That's probably the origin of the mistake with the article. While the gatito example is ok, there is no mosco for mosca.
- vibragiel 12y agoBut it has a male form: mosco. From which "mosquito" comes by diminutivization. No mistake in the article.
- oscardelben 12y agoDepends on the language I guess? In italian we only use mosca.
- felideon 12y agoUsing your own dictionary: http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosquito http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosquito (Del dim. de mosco) Outside of your country, mosco is definitely used.
- ogig 12y agoThat green stuff between parenthesis is the etymological origin and not a definition. Again, i stated that earlier. They share origin, that doesn't make then mean the same. I see mosco is definitely used, and rae dictionary has its entrance: http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosco http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosco Mosco can mean, black horse or mosquito but its NOT the male gender of mosca, that's what i said. (btw "my" dictionary is the normative spanish by the rae, that also includes south american terms)
- vibragiel 12y agoActually, it is a diminutive for "mosco", which comes from "mosca". No Spanish speaker I know of (myself included) has trouble understanding mosquito as little fly.
- ogig 12y agoYes, mosquito it is a dimitive for "mosco", that comes from latin "musca". Sharing a latin root doesn't make them mean the same. If you understand mosquito as "little fly", then how do you call actual mosquitos? Im from spain. I can assure you no one here will take the word mosquito for other than the blood sucker insect. Don't say you are wrong, probably this is about diferent spanish usage since it varies from country to country and even more from continent to continent.
- mootothemax 12y agoDon't say you are wrong, probably this is about diferent spanish usage since it varies from country to country and even more from continent to continent. Daily language use is a very different thing to etymology. Let me give you an example: I'm learning Polish as a second language, and I love, love, love the Polish word for whale: wieloryb. Why? It's a contraction of the words for great/large and fish: wielki + ryba = wieloryb. Isn't that cute? No Pole in their right mind thinks of "great fish" when you say "whale;" that's clearly nonsense. And yet despite this, the history of the word remains.
- vibragiel 12y agoSorry, but this has nothing to do with our dialects. You were contending that the etymology of "mosquito" can't be understood as Spanish for "little fly", which is untrue. See, "fly" is not a biological term, but a colloquial one, and describes a wide range of species (suborders, actually). So "mosquito", which originally was meant in Spanish as "pequeño mosco", could perfectly be translated as "little fly", for "mosco" is a type of "fly" and can be translated as such (as is the case of "moscón", "moscarda", "moscardón"...) > if you understand mosquito as "little fly", then how do you call actual mosquitos? "Mosquitos". Because context. Just as I can know "bolsillo" means "pequeño bolso" (small bag) and cigarrillo means "pequeño cigarro" (small cigar), and simultaneously understand them as the envelope-like receptacle in clothing (pocket) and paper wrapped processed tobacco (cigarette), respectively.
- mootothemax 12y agoIt would have been quicker to tap "Mosquito etymology" into Google than it would have been to write up your incredibly petty comment: 1580s, from Spanish mosquito "little gnat," diminutive of mosca "fly," http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mosquito http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mosquito I genuinely dislike writing such harsh comments, and in this case have let the frustration of seeing this comment as the top-rated one on an otherwise discussion-worthy topic boil over.
- davidw 12y agoInterestingly, Italian has 'mosca' for fly, too, but mosquitos are "zanzare", which is onomatopoeic.
- ogig 12y agoWhat about consulting the actual, present day, normative instead of the middle age origin? http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosquito http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosquito http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosca http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosca Sorry about frustrating you, and i mean it.
- mootothemax 12y agoWhat about consulting the actual, present day, normative instead of the middle age origin? Because one's the reason it got its name, and the other's day-to-day speech? Sorry about frustrating you, and i mean it. No worries, and I'm sorry if I caused anything on my part. I read your comment as picking holes in an article purely for the sake of picking holes, which is something I find frustrating waaaaay out of proportion.
- ogig 12y agoThe etymology of the word, while interesting, is not relevant to my assertion. I only said that "Mosquito" is NOT the spanish word for "small fly". Not normative, and not day-to-day speech. I did not want to pick holes, and it also bothers me sometimes, but the first sentence of the writing had a glaring error that caught my attention. I do think you tried to pick holes on my hole picking. I linked you to the normative, actual definition of mosquito, because that's what you need to use to prove me wrong. Not the 1600 definition.
- analreceiver 12y agoI'm a native spanish speaker from Venezuela and I can tell you that where I'm from "Mosquito" is not seen as a diminutive of "Mosca", since, like you say, the correct form to say "little fly" would be "Mosquita". So, you're right.