Mücke

See also: mucke and Mucke

German

Alternative forms

• Mucke (southern, archaic)

Etymology

From Middle High German mücke, mügge, mucke, mugge, from Old High German mucka, mugga, from Proto-West Germanic *muggjā, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, *muwō (“midge”), from Proto-Indo-European *mū- (“fly, midge”), *mu-, *mew-.

Compare Dutch mug, Low German Mügg, Mügge, English midge, Danish myg, Latin musca.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʏkə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʏkə

Noun

Mücke f (genitive Mücke, plural Mücken, diminutive Mückchen n or Mücklein n)

1. (biology) insect of the order Nematocera, that is a mosquito, crane fly, gnat, or midge
2. (in practice especially) mosquito

   Synonyms: Stechmücke, (Austria) Gelse, (south-western Germany) Schnake, (chiefly tropical kinds) Moskito

3. (regional, Austria, parts of Southern Germany) fly

Usage notes

• Mücke is most often understood as a blood-sucking mosquito in northern and central Germany, though this is mainly because this kind is more annoying and therefore more often talked about. Generally the term includes all of the “Nematocera”. The further inclusion of flies is restricted to Austrian Standard German and southern German vernaculars.

Declension

Declension of Mücke [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Mücke	die	Mücken
genitive	einer	der	Mücke	der	Mücken
dative	einer	der	Mücke	den	Mücken
accusative	eine	die	Mücke	die	Mücken

Derived terms

• aus einer Mücke einen Elefanten machen
• Stechmücke

Further reading

• “Mücke” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Mücke” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Mücke” in Duden online
• Mücke on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de