mite

 

English Wikipedia has an article on:

mite

Wikipedia

 

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”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: mīt, IPA^(key): /maɪt/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt
• Homophone: might

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.
   • 1803, William Blake, Auguries of Innocence:

     One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands
     Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;

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.

   Synonyms: atom, speck; see also Thesaurus:modicum

   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.

   Synonyms: rogue, scamp; see also Thesaurus:troublemaker

   • 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 35:

     Today's children at Christmas-time take a cast-off toy to the Toy Service held in many churches, and it is a pretty sight to watch those tiny mites clutching their toys and parting from them.j

   • 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.

mite

1. Eye dialect spelling of might.

• item, METI, Item, EMT-I, it me, time, emit, -time

mite

1. woman

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

Borrowed from Latin mythos.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈmi.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈmi.te]

mite m (plural mites)

1. myth

• mític
• mitologia

• “mite” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

 

French Wikipedia has an article on:

mite

Wikipedia ^fr

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”).

• IPA^(key): /mit/

• Audio:

  (file)

mite f (plural mites)

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

• antimite
• boule à mites

• acarien m
• chenille f
• papillon m
• teigne f (“clothes moth”)
• pyrale f (“meal moth”)

mite

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

• “mite”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• émit, émît

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈmi.te/
• Rhymes: -ite
• Hyphenation: mì‧te

• Audio:

  (file)

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)

• mitemente

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

• item, temi

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmiː.te/, [ˈmiːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.te/, [ˈmiːt̪e]

mīte

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of mītis

• “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

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”).

mite f (plural mites)

1. (Jersey) mite

mite

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

mite

1. dative singular of mit