Pigmy - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Pig·my

Audio Help [pig-mee] Pronunciation Key noun, plural -mies, adjective

Pygmy.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Pigmy

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Pig·my or pig·my Audio Help (pĭg'mē) Pronunciation Key
n. & adj.
Variants of Pygmy.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Pyg·my also Pig·my Audio Help (pĭg'mē) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. Pyg·mies also Pig·mies

Greek Mythology A member of a race of dwarfs.
also pygmy A member of any of various peoples, especially of equatorial Africa and parts of southeast Asia, having an average height less than 5 feet (152 centimeters). Not in scientific use.
pygmy
1. An individual of unusually small size.
2. An individual considered to be of little or no importance.

adj.

also pygmy Of or relating to the Pygmies. Not in scientific use.
pygmy
1. Unusually or atypically small.
2. Unimportant; trivial.

[Middle English pigmie, from Latin Pygmaeī, the Pygmies, from Greek Pugmaioi, from pugmē, cubit, fist; see peuk- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
pigmy

1384, Pigmei, "member of a fabulous race of dwarfs," described by Homer and Herodotus and said to inhabit Egypt and India, from L. Pygmaeus, from Gk. Pygmaios, from an adj. meaning "dwarfish," lit. "of the length of a pygme" -- forearm and fist, measure of distance from the elbow to the knuckles, related to pyx "with clenched fist" and to L. pugnus "fist." Applied 19c. to the central African people now known by that name.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

pigmy
noun
1.	an unusually small individual [syn: pygmy]
2.	any member of various peoples having an average height of less than five feet [syn: Pygmy]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Pigmy

Fist\, n. [OE. fist, fust, AS. f?st; akin to D. vuist, OHG. f?st, G. faust, and prob. to L. pugnus, Gr. ? fist, ? with the fist. Cf. Pugnacious, Pigmy.]

1. The hand with the fingers doubled into the palm; the closed hand, especially as clinched tightly for the purpose of striking a blow.

Who grasp the earth and heaven with my fist. --Herbert.

2. The talons of a bird of prey. [Obs.]

More light than culver in the falcon's fist. --Spenser.

3. (print.) the index mark [[hand]], used to direct special attention to the passage which follows.

Hand over fist (Naut.), rapidly; hand over hand.

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