Gnat

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Old English gnætt, of Germanic origin; related to German Gnitze .

wiktionary

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From Middle English gnat, from Old English gnætt(“gnat; midge; mosquito”), from Proto-Germanic *gnattaz, *gnattuz(“gnat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰneHdʰn-, *gʰneHd-(“to gnaw; scratch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰen-(“to gnaw; bite; scratch; grind”). Cognate with Low German Gnatte(“gnat”), dialectal Swedish gnatt(“mote; particle; atom”), German Gnatz(“scabs; rash; scabies; stinginess”). Related also gnit and gnaw.

etymonline

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gnat (n.)

Old English gnæt "gnat, midge, small flying insect," earlier gneat, from Proto-Germanic *gnattaz (source also of Low German gnatte, German Gnitze); perhaps literally "biting insect" and related to gnaw.

The gnatte is a litil fflye, and hatte culex he soukeþ blood and haþ in his mouþ a pipe, as hit were a pricke. And is a-countid a-mong volatiles and greueþ slepinge men wiþ noyse & wiþ bytinge and wakeþ hem of here reste. [Bartholomew Glanville, "De proprietatibus rerum," c. 1240, translated by John of Trevisa c. 1398 ]

Gnat-catcher, insectivorous bird of the U.S. woodlands, is from 1823.