pygmy

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun an unusually small individual
noun any member of various peoples having an average height of less than five feet

From Latin Pygmaeī, from Ancient Greek πυγμαῖος (pugmaîos, “a member of a race of dwarves”), from πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist (as small as a fist)”).

"Villain!" shouted all the Pygmies at once. — Tanglewood Tales, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Olaüs Magnus thinks the Samoeids and Laplanders to have been the Pygmies of Homer. — The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII, Ovid
Whichever way he looked, there stretched before him long yellow avenues of pygmy trees. — "Wee Tim'rous Beasties": Studies of Animal life and Character, Douglas English

pigmy

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