chigger

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Trombicula, chigger, chigoe

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Trombiculidae, (GB) harvest mites, (US) chiggers

From chigoe, likely from a Cariban language term such as Kari'na siko (“chigoe”) (early recorded variant chico), from Proto-Cariban *tikô.

chigger (plural chiggers)

A chigoe (Tunga penetrans), a kind of flea found in tropical climates.
A harvest mite (Trombiculidae spp.), a very small, red mite endemic to the Midwestern and Southeastern US, the infestation of which causes intense itching.
- 2024 July 25, Carly Stern, “It’s Chigger Season. Here’s What to Know About the Pests.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:
  Dr. Lareau, an emergency medicine physician at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital in Virginia, had seen these marks once or twice before on patients. She knew what had caused them. They were from chiggers, a species of tiny, reddish-brown mites able to leave bites that remain itchy for days or weeks.

chigoe flea

harvest mite

chigger (plural chiggers)

(US, slang, derogatory, offensive) An East Asian person who behaves in ways similar to a stereotypical urban African American.
- 2007, James Boice, MVP: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 37:
  —He's not black, Stacia Jacobs who smelled like pee said. — He's yellow and black. He's a chigger. Do you know what a chigger is? It's a chink and a nigger.