mite

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 (GA)

  (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.

   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.

• (small amount): see also Thesaurus:modicum.

mite

1. Eye dialect spelling of might.

• -time, METI, emit, it me, item, 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): (Valencian) [ˈmi.te]

mite m (plural mites)

1. myth

• mític
• mitologia

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

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) 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