pygmy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   unusually small for its kind, especially in the common name of an animal or plant

   A pygmy owl watched from a branch above the trail.

2. 2
   noun

   a person, animal, plant, or thing much smaller than others of its kind; potentially offensive when applied to a person

   Beside the giant trees, the young pine looked like a pygmy.

3. 3
   noun

   usually Pygmy: a broad and sometimes contested name for a member of any of several Indigenous peoples of Central Africa

   The museum revised its label to name the specific community rather than simply calling the person a Pygmy.

Via Latin Pygmaei from Greek Pygmaioi, a mythical people said to be a cubit high, from pygme 'fist' or 'distance from elbow to knuckles'. The name later broadened to unusually small beings and was applied as an umbrella ethnonym to several Central African peoples; that use can be imprecise or unwelcome.

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