pygmy
noun/ˈpɪɡmi/
/ˈpɪɡmi/
(also pigmy)
(plural pygmies, pigmies)
- Pygmya member of a group of people who are very short, especially a member of a people living in central Africa. This word is sometimes now considered offensive.
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- (disapproving) a very small person or thing or one that is weak in some way
- He regarded them as intellectual pygmies.
Word Originlate Middle English (originally in the plural, denoting a mythological race of small people): via Latin from Greek pugmaios ‘dwarf’, from pugmē ‘the length measured from elbow to knuckles’.
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pygmy