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Pygmies

 [pig-mee]   Origin

Pyg·my

   [pig-mee] noun, plural -mies, adjective
noun
1.
Anthropology.
a.
a member of a small-statured people native to equatorial Africa.
b.
a Negrito of southeastern Asia, or of the Andaman or Philippine islands.
2.
(lowercase) a small or dwarfish person.
3.
(lowercase) anything very small of its kind.
4.
(lowercase) a person who is of small importance, or who has some quality, attribute, etc., in very small measure.
5.
Classical Mythology. (in the Iliad) one of a race of dwarfs who fought battles with cranes, who preyed on them and destroyed their fields.
adjective
6.
(often lowercase) of or pertaining to the Pygmies.
7.
(lowercase) of very small size, capacity, power, etc.

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Pygmies is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
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Also, Pigmy.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English pigmēis, plural of pigmē < Latin Pygmaeus < Greek pygmaîos dwarfish (adj.), Pygmy (noun), equivalent to pygm(ḗ) distance from elbow to knuckles + -aios adj. suffix

Related forms
pyg·moid, adjective
pyg·my·ish, adjective
pyg·my·ism, noun

Synonyms
2. See dwarf.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To Pygmies
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

pygmy
1382, from L. Pygmaei (sing. Pygmaeus), from Gk. Pygmaio "a tribe of dwarfs," referred to in Homer and Herodotus and reputed to live in either India or Ethiopia; originally plural of an adj. meaning "dwarfish," lit. "a pygme tall," from pygme "cubit," lit. "fist," the measure of length from the elbow
EXPAND
to the knuckle (see pugnacious). Believed in 17c. to refer to chimpanzees or orangutangs. The ancient word was applied by Europeans to the equatorial African race 1863, but the tribes probably were known to the ancients and likely were the original inspiration for the legend.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

pygmy pyg·my (pĭg'mē)
n.

  1. An individual of unusually small size.

  2. Pygmy A member of any of various peoples, especially found in equatorial Africa and parts of southeast Asia, having an average height less than 5 feet.

adj.
Unusually or atypically small.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

Pygmy definition


A member of any ethnic group in which the average height of the adult male is less than four feet, eleven inches. There are Pygmy tribes in dense rain-forest areas of central Africa, southern India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The most widely studied Pygmies are the Mbuti of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, who pursue a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence (see nomadism and hunting and gathering societies), but have established complex interdependent relationships with their non-Pygmy farming neighbors.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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