茸蝿

Japanese

Kanji in this term
茸	蝿
きのこ Jinmeiyō	はえ > ばえ Hyōgai
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
茸蠅 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

From 茸(きのこ) (kinoko, “mushroom”) + 蝿(はえ) (hae, “fly”). The は changes to ば as an instance of rendaku (連(れん)濁(だく)).

Noun

茸(きのこ)蝿(ばえ) or 茸蝿(キノコバエ) • (kinokobae)

fungus gnat

Usage notes

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as キノコバエ (kinokobae).