midget（n.）
1839年，作为一种小型咬人昆虫，源自 midge，可能带有 -et 的小型后缀，美国英语。
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]
韦伯斯特博士在说“midge”这个词“现在不使用”时是错误的。在邻近的绿山区，一种或多种最令人讨厌的 Simulium 物种每天都被称为 midges 或者常常被改变的名字 midgets。从哈里斯博士的论文中可以看出，在缅因州，同样的名称也用于同样的昆虫。我们相信，这个术语在这个国家是专门用于那些比蚊子小，吸其他动物血液的微小昆虫。["纽约州农业协会交易"，第六卷，奥尔巴尼，1847年]
“非常小的人”的转义意义可以追溯到1854年。它也被指出是19世纪中叶 Margaret 的昵称。
该词起源时间：1839年