midget

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈmɪdʒɪt/ UK /ˈmɪdʒɪt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a very small thing or, now offensively, a very short person

The toy car was a midget version of the real model.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a very small thing or, now... dwarf miniatureminipygmy

Opposites

giant colossus

Word family

Related forms midge

Simplified etymology

Midget developed from Old English midge, the name of a small biting fly. It was first applied generally to very small things and began referring to an unusually small person in the mid-19th century.

Etymology

From midge (Old English mycg 'gnat, small fly', from Proto-Germanic *mugjō) + the diminutive suffix -et, coined in the 19th century to mean 'something very small'.

mycg Old English *mugjō Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# midget

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈmɪdʒɪt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈmɪdʒɪt/

## Meanings
1. a very small thing or, now offensively, a very short person

## Examples
- The toy car was a midget version of the real model.

## Synonyms
- dwarf
- miniature
- mini
- pygmy

## Antonyms
- giant
- colossus

## Related Forms
- midge

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: mycg
- Root: *mugjō

## Etymology
From midge (Old English mycg 'gnat, small fly', from Proto-Germanic *mugjō) + the diminutive suffix -et, coined in the 19th century to mean 'something very small'.

## AI Etymology
Midget comes from midge (Old English mycg 'gnat, small fly', from Proto-Germanic *mugjō) + the diminutive suffix -et, coined in the 19th century to mean 'something very small'. The etymological trail includes Old English mycg and Proto-Germanic *mugjō. As a noun, midget means a very small thing or, now offensively, a very short person. The same family is visible in related forms such as midge. Morphologically, the word is built from the elements named in its history, so the modern form preserves a visible compound, prefix, or suffix structure.

## Topics
- People & Society

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