Other forms: gnats
A gnat is a tiny biting fly that dances in clouds at dusk. A cloud of gnats, gnat bites, swatting gnats.
The dancing clouds are males waiting for females, which is why they hover in one spot over a path or a person. Straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel is a biblical phrase for fussing over trifles while missing the great fault. Note the silent g, which was once pronounced.
1noungnatA tiny biting fly.
“I got bitten by gnats all evening while we were fishing by the lake.”
gnat is an insect.
Old English gnaett is a Germanic word, perhaps from a root meaning to gnaw. The g was pronounced in Old English.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰneHdʰn-
Proto-Germanic
*gnattaz
Proto-West Germanic
*gnatt
Old English
gnætt — gnat; midge; mosquito
Middle English
gnat
English, today
gnat
Built from
From Middle English gnat, from Old English gnætt (“gnat; midge; mosquito”), from Proto-West Germanic gnatt, gnattu, from Proto-Germanic gnattaz, gnattuz (“gnat”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰneHdʰn-, gʰneHd- (“to gnaw; scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰen- (“to gnaw; bite; scratch; grind”). Cognate with Low German Gnatte (“gnat”), dialectal Swedish gnatt (“mosquito”), German Gnatz (“scabs; rash; scabies; stinginess”). Related also gnit and gnaw.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA