Meaning
A pronunciation variant of 'mosquito' — the biting insect. Spelled to show how Patois reshapes the word, softening the 'mos-' to 'mas-', 'maskita' means exactly the same as 'mosquito': the whining, biting pest of dusk and the rainy season, worst at nightfall, that a lit coil or a mesh net keeps at bay. It belongs to the everyday battle against the insects of the tropical evening, and the spelling simply captures the sound of the word as it is really said in ordinary Jamaican speech.
Examples
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Di maskita dem bad tonight.
The mosquitoes are terrible tonight.
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Light di coil fi di maskita.
Light the coil for the mosquitoes.
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A maskita bite mi pon mi foot.
A mosquito bit me on my leg.
Origin
A Patois pronunciation of 'mosquito', the vowels reshaped to 'maskita'. See [[mosquito]].
How it’s used
A pronunciation variant of 'mosquito'; same meaning. See [[mosquito]], [[coil]].