Gnats

[nat] /næt/

noun
1.
any of certain small flies, especially the biting gnats or punkies of the family Ceratopogonidae, the midges of the family Chironomidae, and the black flies of the family Simuliidae.
2.
British. .
Idioms
3.
strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, to fuss about trifles while ignoring more serious matters.
/næt/
noun
1.
any of various small fragile biting dipterous insects of the suborder Nematocera, esp Culex pipiens (common gnat), which abounds near stagnant water
n.

Old English gnætt “gnat, midge, mosquito,” earlier gneat, used of various small, flying insects, from Proto-Germanic *gnattaz (cf. Low German gnatte, German Gnitze); perhaps literally “biting insect” and related to gnaw.

The gnatte is a litil fflye, and hatte culex..he soukeþ blood and haþ in his mouþ a pipe, as hit were a pricke..And is a-countid a-mong volatiles..and greueþ slepinge men wiþ noyse & wiþ bytinge and wakeþ hem of here reste. [John of Trevisa, transl. of Bartholomew de Glanville’s “De proprietatibus rerum,” 1398]

gnat (nāt)
n.
Any of various small, biting, two-winged flies, such as a biting midge or black fly.

GNU Problem Report Management System

only in Matt. 23:24, a small two-winged stinging fly of the genus Culex, which includes mosquitoes. Our Lord alludes here to the gnat in a proverbial expression probably in common use, “who strain out the gnat;” the words in the Authorized Version, “strain at a gnat,” being a mere typographical error, which has been corrected in the Revised Version. The custom of filtering wine for this purpose was common among the Jews. It was founded on Lev. 11:23. It is supposed that the “lice,” Ex. 8:16 (marg. R.V., “sand-flies”), were a species of gnat.