MITEとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 mite, from 古期英語 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”).

発音

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: mīt, IPA: /maɪt/
• 韻: -aɪt
• Homophone: might

名詞

mite (plural mites)

1. Any of many minute arachnids which, along with the ticks, comprise subclass Acarina (aka Acari).

   Hypernyms: arachnid < arthropod < bug (broad sense) < invertebrate < animal < creature, critter

   Coordinate terms: (other arachnids) tick, spider, scorpion; (other arthropods) insect

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 Judea 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.

   Synonyms: atom, speck; see also Thesaurus:modicum

   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 as a term of endearment) A small or naughty person, or one people take pity on; rascal.

   Synonyms: rogue, scamp; see also Thesaurus:troublemaker

   • 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 35:

     Today's children at Christmas-time take a cast-off toy to the Toy Service held in many churches, and it is a pretty sight to watch those tiny mites clutching their toys and parting from them.j

   • 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.

派生語

動詞

mite

1. Eye dialect spelling of might.

アナグラム

• item, METI, Item, EMT-I, it me, time, emit, -time

名詞

mīte f

1. a mite, small insect

派生した語

• Middle English: mite
  • English: mite

参照

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “míte”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

形容詞

mīte

1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of mītis

参照

• “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