skeeter

- mosquito

- (US, Australia, colloquial) a mosquito; an aphetic and re-spelled form

Merriam-Webster, Wiktionary

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WORD ORIGIN

Skeeter is what linguists call an aphetic form — the loss of an unstressed opening syllable. If you say mosquito lazily, the first syllable evaporates: (mo)squito → 'squito → skeeter.

The parent word mosquito entered English in the 1580s from Spanish, a diminutive of mosca ("fly"), itself from Latin musca, traceable to the Proto-Indo-European root mū-, an imitation of an insect's hum. That same buzzing root gives us midge (Old English mycg) and Greek myia.

Skeeter itself first appears in American print in 1839 — by happy coincidence, the very year that gave English photograph, commando, and malt whiskey.

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TINY TYRANTS

Typically, mosquitoes find their victims by detecting body heat, lactic acid, and carbon dioxide. Some people seem naturally less attractive to them, possibly because their genes make them harder to detect. The most effective protection remains DEET, which interferes with a mosquito's ability to find its target.

Garlic, despite its reputation as a natural repellent, has repeatedly failed to impress in scientific studies. It may discourage other humans — and perhaps even vampires — but apparently not skeeters.

Many words get shorter the more we use them. Skeeter comes from mosquito, worn down to something quicker to say. English does this constantly. Esquire became squire, Influenza became flu, omnibus bus, and telephone phone. The pattern isn't one neat rule — sometimes the front goes, sometimes the ends — but the impulse is the same: a word handled often enough gets smoothed out.

Skeeter has even made its way into medicine. Doctors use the term Skeeter syndrome for an unusually strong allergic reaction to mosquito bites. A nickname has become part of medical vocabulary.

Mosquito is the dictionary word. Skeeter is the word of someone who's spent an evening swatting them.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

bloodsucker, brasshead, drill bug, gabber napper, gallinipper, galliwopper, gnat, granny-nipper, maringouin, midge, mitsy, mosquito, mossie, mozzie, nighthawk, nipper, no-see-um, punkie (near), SKEETER, swamp angel

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, start with something like:



"Even on a beautiful evening in a comfortable hotel, SKEETERS have a way of reminding us who's really in charge."

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