pygmy
/ˈpɪɡmi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.72 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A member of various legendary races of dwarfs, or supernatural peoples of diminutive stature.
Example Sentences
- "Here are little Apes, much reſembling men in their countenance, which they vſed to preſerue with certaine Spices, hauing flayed off their skinnes, and left the haire growing in thoſe parts, where Nature cauſeth men to bee hairie, and ſell them to Merchants, to be carried ouer the World as the bodies of little men; happily the only true Pygmies the World yeeldeth."
- "Being desired by her to bring a present of gold, with which that region abounded, he stole, while at play with the king's son, the golden ball with which he used to divert himself, and brought it to his mother in great haste; and when he reached the door of his father's house, but not unpursued, and was entering it in a great hurry, his foot stumbled on the threshold, and, falling down into the room where his mother was sitting, the two Pygmies seized the ball, which had dropped from his hand, and departed, spitting at and deriding the boy."
- "I've seen unicorns in Burma and a yeti in Nepal; / and I've danced with ten-foot Pygmies in a Montezuma Hall."
- "Ctesias lived in Persia for several years, as the personal physician of King Ataxerxes II, and would have had contact with travellers to India, and Indian visitors to Persia. He describes dog-headed humans, pygmy men who grow their beards so long that they can be used as clothes, and affirms that it never rains in India."
- "The dark negroid Pygmies (Negrittos) are found in the Belgian Congo and in the equatorial area."
- "Although Pygmies are relatively protected against gene flow from other populations, many Pygmy tribes show extensive gene replacement and few have remained relatively unaltered."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Pygmaeī, πυγμαῖος
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
African pygmy goat
African pygmy goose
American pygmy goat
cotton pygmy goose
Eurasian pygmy owl
green pygmy goose
pygmy antwren
pygmy auk