midget

来自midge,小虫，蠓，-et,小词后缀。比喻用法。

midget

midget: see mosquito

midget (n.)

as a type of tiny biting insect, 1839, American English, from midge, perhaps with diminutive suffix -et.

Dr. Webster is in error in saying the word "midge" is "not in use" at the present day. In the neighboring Green mountain districts, one or more most annoying species of Simulium that there abound, are daily designated in common conversation as the midges, or, as the name is often corrupted, the midgets. From Dr. Harris' treatise it appears that the same name is in popular use for the same insects in Maine. The term is limited in this country, we believe, exclusively to those minute insects, smaller than the musketoe, which suck the blood of other animals. ["Transactions of the New-York State Agricultural Society," vol. VI, Albany, 1847]

Transferred sense of "very small person" is attested by 1854. It is also noted mid-19c. as a pet form of Margaret.

1. Their second son is a midget.

他们的第二个儿子是个侏儒。

2. From 1942 onward I worked on the first anti - midget - submarine detection systems.

从1942年往后,我研究了头一批 反 小型潜艇的探测系统.

3. The Tirpitz had been disabled by the audacious and heroic attack of our midget submarines.

“提尔古茨”号战列舰由于我们小型潜艇发动的大胆而英勇的袭击而丧失了战斗力.

4. I don't know whether to look for a giant or a midget.

我不知道现在该去找的是巨人还是侏儒.

5. Brazil nuts - inshell and shelled - extra - large , large, medium, midget sizes.

巴西坚果 -- 带壳和去壳的 -- 超大型 、 大型 、 中型 、 小型.