punkie

Dictionary: punk·ie  punk·y (pŭng'kē)

Any of various minute, biting flies of the family Ceratopogonidae. Also called biting midge, no-see-um.

[Of North American Dutch origin, from Munsee pónkwəs.]

If you're attacked by a swarm of punkies, you'll probably be in the north woods rather than at a rock concert or a night club. That's because the punkies named by Munsee Indians long ago are not the in-your-face human variety but in-your-face midges, little biting bugs so small they are also called no-see-ums.

These punkies are less than a quarter-inch long and skinny to boot. You may not notice them because their bite doesn't register at first, but it soon can become a fierce itch and a blotch an inch across. And that's just one bite.

If you know mosquitos, you know some of the traits of Culicoides furens (to use their formal name). They are bloodsuckers, only the females bite, and they breed in standing water. But they don't hang around as long as mosquitos. Punkies generally swarm only for a few weeks in the spring, rather than staying for the whole summer. And they don't travel as far as mosquitos can. They are reluctant to leave the neighborhood where they grew up, so you can often escape their attack just by stepping away a few yards.

Punkies have long been known to English speakers in North America. A traveler in the colony of New York in 1769 noted, "We begin to be teazed with Muscetoes and little Gnats called here Punkies." The name ultimately derives from the word for dust or ashes in the Algonquian languages, a word that was probably the source of modern punk, the smoldering wick used for fireworks. Punkie seems to have its specific origin in pónkwus, a word in the Eastern Algonquian language known as Munsee. Today that language is spoken only in southern Ontario, the heart of punkie country. Munsee is a Delaware language in the eastern branch of the Algonquian-Ritwan language family. It is almost extinct; a 1991 survey located only seven or eight elderly speakers on the reservation in Ontario. Munsee is not noted as the source of any other English words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: minute two-winged insect that sucks the blood of mammals and birds and other insects
  Synonyms: punkie, punky, punkey, no-see-um