pygmy, pigmy, n. and a.
(ˈpɪgmɪ)
Forms: 4–7 pigmey (4–6 pl. -eis), 5 pl. pigmez, 5–7 pygmey (pl. 5–6 -eis, -eyes, 7 -eys), pygme, 6 pigmay, -mé, 6–7 pigmie, 7 pigmee, pygmie, 6– pigmy, 8– pygmy. β. 5 pygmew, 5–6 pigmew.
[In α form, ad. L. pygmæ-us, a. Gr. πυγµαῖ-ος adj. dwarfish, n. a dwarf, a pygmy, f. πυγµή a measure of length from the elbow to the knuckles, also the fist (the pl. pigmeis in Wyclif being directly ad. L. pygmæi); cf. F. pygmée, Rabelais. In the β form, pygmew, ad. med.L. pygmeu-s, L. pygmæus, cf. Andrew, † Grew, Hebrew, Jew, Matthew, † Pharisew, also OF. pigmeau (Godef.), pimeau (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. n.
1. a. One of a race (or several races) of people of very small size, mentioned in ancient history and tradition as inhabiting parts of Ethiopia or India; in later times generally supposed to be fabulous. (b) One of a group of very short people inhabiting equatorial Africa, who were first encountered by Europeans in the last quarter of the 19th c. and who may be the Πυγµαῖοι of Homer and Herodotus.
| 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xxvii. 11 Pigmeis that weren in thi touris hangiden her arewgirdlis in thi wallis bi cumpas. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. cxx. (1495) 534 Pigmea is a countree in Ynde towarde the eest in mountaynes afore the occean. Therin dwelled the Pigmeis: men lytyll of body: vneth two cubytes longe, they gendre in the fourth yere and aege in the seuenth. Thyse..fyghte wyth cranes and destroyen theyr nestes, and breke theyr egges, that theyr enmyes be not multyplyed. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxii. 100 Þai er sumwhat mare þan pigmez [MS. C. pygmeyes; Fr. pigmeiz]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 395/2 Pygmew [S. pygme], pigmeus. c 1520 L. Andrew Noble Lyfe H ij b, Pigmeis be men & women, & but one cubite longe, dwellinge in the mountaynes of ynde. They be full growen at their third yere, & at their seuen yere they be olde. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 278, I will..fetch you a hayre off the great Chams beard: doe you any embassage to the Pigmies. 1675 J. Barnes Gerania 21 Eucompsus had by this time pretty well confirmed us all in the opinion, that these were Pygmies. 1696 Phillips (ed. 5), Pigmy, a sort of People, if there be any such, said to be not above a Cubit high. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 31 ¶2 That part of India which is said to be inhabited by the Pigmies. 1796 Burke Regic. Peace iv. Wks. 1808 IX. 42 That the battle of Marignan was the battle of the Giants, that all the rest..were those of the Cranes and Pygmies. 1887 H. M. Stanley Darkest Africa (1890) I. 251 A march of nine and a half miles on the 9th of November took us to a Pigmies' camp. 1898 G. Burrows Land of Pigmies viii. 176 The term Akka, by which the Pigmies are known. |
† b. Formerly applied to the chimpanzee and other anthropoid apes as the assumed originals of the pygmies of ancient story.
Obs.| 1699 E. Tyson Ourang-outang 1 That the Pygmies of the Antients were a sort of Apes, and not of Humane Race, I shall endeavour to prove in the following Essay... A Puny Race of Mankind, call'd to this day, Homo Sylvestris, The Wild Man: Orang Outang, or a Man of the Woods. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. vii. i. 491 The Troglodyte of Bontius, the Drill of Purchas, and the Pigmy of Tyson, have all received this general name—oran outang, or wild man of the woods. 1778 Camper in Phil. Trans. LXIX. 144 As the celebrated Dr. Tyson had found the organ of voice so similar to that of men in his Pigmy. 1863 Huxley Man's Place Nat. i. 8 This ‘Pygmie’, Tyson tells us, ‘was brought from Angola’;..sufficient to prove his ‘Pygmie’ to be a young chimpanzee. |
2. a. gen. A person of very small stature; a dwarf.
| 1520 in Archæologia LIII. 17 A case of wode covered w{supt} sylver..havyng a man and a woman called pygmeis. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 731/2 As very a manne is he that hath little stature, as hee that hathe a greate, and a Pigmay as a Geaunt. 1640 J. Stoughton Def. & Distrib. Div., etc. ii. 67 Though a Gyant be taller then a Pygme, yet a Pygme upon his shoulders hath advantage of him. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 98 ¶2 A Woman, who was but a Pygmy without her Head-dress, appear'd like a Colossus upon putting it on. 1820 Keats Hyperion i. 28 By her in stature the tall Amazon Had stood a pigmy's height. |
b. fig. A person (or something personified) of very small importance, or having some specified quality in a very small degree. (
Cf. giant A. 3.)
| 1592 Kyd Sol. & Pers. ii. ii. 91 Ile send some Crane to combate with the Pigmew. 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. iii. §14 Though Giants in Wealth and Dignity, we are but Dwarfs and Pygmies in Humanity. 1760 Dodd Hymn Gd.-Nature Poems (1767) 6 We stood Mere pigmies on the strand. 1860 Reade Cloister & H. lxxiv, These are heathen arts, and we but pigmies at them. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. I. viii. 110 They were intellectual pigmies beside the real leaders of that generation—Clay, Calhoun, and Webster. |
c. transf. A thing that is very small of its kind.
| 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 967 The plant..does not cease to vegetate, but it continues always a mere pigmy. 1849 H. Miller Footpr. Creat. x. (1874) 181 They took their place..among the pigmies and abortions of creation. 1880 Haughton Phys. Geog. ii. 49 Venus contains mountain ridges upwards of 25 miles in height, in comparison with which our giant Himalayas would appear like pygmies. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 1 Mar. 12/1 Since the application of the dry process to photography..the detection of these planetary pigmies [asteroids] has been rendered much easier. |
3. An elf, puck, pixy.
| 1611 Cotgr., Pigmée, a Pigmey, dwarfe,..elfe, twattle. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xi, The Pygmies of Paracelsus, that is, his non-Adamicall men, or middle natures betwixt men and spirits. 1774–6 J. Bryant Mythol. II. 350 The Greek and Roman Poets reduced the character of this Deity [Eros] to that of a wanton mischievous pigmy. 1830 Scott Demonol. iv. 123 All tribes of Celtic origin assigned to..these silvan pigmies, more social habits. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. xviii. 7 They the fairies, and the pigmies, Plotted and conspired against him. |
B. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to the race of pygmies: see A. 1. (Partly
attrib. use of the
n.)
| a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal xiii. 240 The pygmie-warriour runs to fight In his dwarf-armour. 1704–5 Pope Jan. & May 461 Their pigmy king, and little fairy queen, In circling dances gamboll'd on the green. 1749 Collins Ode, Pop. Superstit. Highl. 143 In whose small vaults a pigmy-folk is found. 1870 Bryant Homer I. iii. 80 Bring fearful battle to the pigmy race, Bloodshed and death. |
2. a. Of persons and animals: Of very small size or stature, dwarf.
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 76 As a rare Painter draws..Here a huge Cyclop, there a Pigmé Elf. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse Wks. (Grosart) II. 65 Thou great baboune, thou Pigmie Braggart, thou Pamph[l]eter of nothing but peans. 1645 Evelyn Diary 22–24 May, A pigmy sort of spaniels. 1735 Somerville Chase i. 261 The pigmy Brood in ev'ry Furrow swims. 1823 Scott Peveril xxxiii, ‘You have him before you, young man’, said the pigmy tenant of the cell, with an air of dignity. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) II. x. 153 The old showman..stirred up the souls of the pygmy people with one of the quickest tunes in the music book. |
b. gen. Very small, diminutive, tiny. In
Nat. Hist. often used in the names of species of animals that are very small of their kind. Also
fig.| 1595 Shakes. John v. ii. 135 Prepar'd To whip this dwarfish warre, this Pigmy Armes From out the circle of his Territories. a 1678 Marvell in Casquet of Lit. (1873) I. 309/2 An arrow hurtel'd ere so high..Goes but a pigmy length. 1763 Churchill Epist. to W. Hogarth 438 Bid the Deep Hush at thy pigmy voice her waves to sleep. 1771 Pennant Syn. Quadr. 98 Pygmy Ape. 1781 Latham Hist. Birds I. 256 Pygmy Parrakeet. 1803–6 Wordsw. Ode Intim. Immort. vii, A six years' Darling of a pigmy size. 1830 Edin. Encycl. XIII. 399/2 P[ithecus] sylvanus. The Pigmy ape inhabits Africa, the East Indies, and Ceylon,..and, when standing on its hinder legs, measures about two feet in height. 1893 Lydekker Horns & Hoofs 358 The smallest of all the pigs is, however, the pigmy hog (Sus salvaninus). 1898 Daily News 16 Aug. 6/2 The pigmy shrew..which really is the smallest mammal we have, and the least but one in all Europe. |
C. Comb. as
pygmy-cup,
pygmy-folk,
pygmy-minded adjs.;
pygmy-flint Archæol., a type of microlith;
pygmy-weed, an annual weed,
Tillæa simplex, an inch or two high, found in the eastern United States.
| 1936 Proc. Prehist. Soc. II. 223 The urns comprise two food-vessels, a *pigmy-cup and an encrusted urn. 1963 H. N. Savory in Foster & Alcock Culture & Environment iii. 43 The Breach Farm barrow, with its dry-stone wall kerb and its fine biconical Pygmy Cup. |
| 1907 T. R. Holmes Anc. Britain 82 Of all stone implements the most curious are the tiny objects which are known as ‘*pygmy flints’. 1930 F. Elgee Early Man in N.E. Yorkshire v. 31 The pygmy-flint men lived by hunting and fishing. 1963 Field Archaeol. (Ordnance Survey) (ed. 4) 8 Various palæolithic objects like hand-axes and choppers, microliths (‘pygmy’ flints), arrow and lance heads. |
| 1788 W. Collins Ode on Pop. Superstitions Highlands of Scotl. 18 In..small vaults a *pigmy-folk is found. |
| 1835 Pusey in Liddon Life (1893) I. xiii. 320 One point in the plan did strike me as less *pigmy-minded. |
Hence (
nonce-wds.)
ˈpygmy,
ˈpigmy v. trans., to make a pygmy of, to reduce to insignificance, to dwarf;
ˈpygmydom, the realm of pygmies;
ˈpygmyhood,
ˈpygmyism,
ˈpygmyship, the condition, position, or character of a pygmy.
| 1658 Sam. Austin Naps Parnass. E ij, Stand off thou Poetaster from the Press, Who *pygmi'st Martyrs with thy dwarf-like verse. 1828 Blackw. Mag. XXIII. 598 They were pigmied to nothing in such a lordly neighbourhood. 1909 Church Times 23 July 120/3 This great..church towers high above everything. It pigmies the parish church. |
| 1892 Booth-Tucker Catherine Booth lxxvii. II. 162 Lilliputian nobodies from the land of *pigmydom strutted out. |
| 1892 Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894) 231 What we do not understand, we declare, from the height of our *pigmyhood, to be useless. |
| 1837 Bp. Inglis Let. in E. Churton Mem. J. Watson (1861) II. 99 Do not laugh at our *pigmyism. |
| 1862 Temple Bar Mag. V. 288 His *pigmyship. |