An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Mücke

by Friedrich Kluge

Mücke, feminine, ‘gnat, midge,’ from Middle High German mücke, mucke, feminine, ‘gnat, fly’ (hence still Modern High German dialectic ‘fly’), Old High German mucca, feminine Gothic *mugjô is by chance not recorded; it is indicated by Anglo-Saxon myčǧe, feminine, English midge, Old Saxon muggia, Dutch mug. Old Icelandic mý, neuter, ‘gnat,’ suggests the idea that the West Teutonic guttural is a suffix, as in Brücke (see also Jugend). The common Teutonic form of the noun is muwî, to which also Greek μυῖα corresponds.