| 释义 |
pygmy, pigmy, n. and a.|ˈpɪgmɪ|
Forms: 4–7 pigmey (4–6 pl. -eis), 5 pl. pigmez, 5–7 pygmey (pl. 5–6 -eis, -eyes, 7 -eys), pygme, 6 pigmay, -mé, 6–7 pigmie, 7 pigmee, pygmie, 6– pigmy, 8– pygmy. β. 5 pygmew, 5–6 pigmew.
[In α form, ad. L. pygmæ-us, a. Gr. πυγµαῖ-ος adj. dwarfish, n. a dwarf, a pygmy, f. πυγµή a measure of length from the elbow to the knuckles, also the fist (the pl. pigmeis in Wyclif being directly ad. L. pygmæi); cf. F. pygmée, Rabelais. In the β form, pygmew, ad. med.L. pygmeu-s, L. pygmæus, cf. Andrew, † Grew, Hebrew, Jew, Matthew, † Pharisew, also OF. pigmeau (Godef.), pimeau (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. n.
1. a. One of a race (or several races) of people of very small size, mentioned in ancient history and tradition as inhabiting parts of Ethiopia or India; in later times generally supposed to be fabulous. (b) One of a group of very short people inhabiting equatorial Africa, who were first encountered by Europeans in the last quarter of the 19th c. and who may be the Πυγµαῖοι of Homer and Herodotus.
1382Wyclif Ezek. xxvii. 11 Pigmeis that weren in thi touris hangiden her arewgirdlis in thi wallis bi cumpas. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. cxx. (1495) 534 Pigmea is a countree in Ynde towarde the eest in mountaynes afore the occean. Therin dwelled the Pigmeis: men lytyll of body: vneth two cubytes longe, they gendre in the fourth yere and aege in the seuenth. Thyse..fyghte wyth cranes and destroyen theyr nestes, and breke theyr egges, that theyr enmyes be not multyplyed. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxii. 100 Þai er sumwhat mare þan pigmez [MS. C. pygmeyes; Fr. pigmeiz]. c1440Promp. Parv. 395/2 Pygmew [S. pygme], pigmeus. c1520L. Andrew Noble Lyfe H ij b, Pigmeis be men & women, & but one cubite longe, dwellinge in the mountaynes of ynde. They be full growen at their third yere, & at their seuen yere they be olde. 1599Shakes. Much Ado ii. i. 278, I will..fetch you a hayre off the great Chams beard: doe you any embassage to the Pigmies. 1675J. Barnes Gerania 21 Eucompsus had by this time pretty well confirmed us all in the opinion, that these were Pygmies. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Pigmy, a sort of People, if there be any such, said to be not above a Cubit high. 1711Addison Spect. No. 31 ⁋2 That part of India which is said to be inhabited by the Pigmies. 1796Burke Regic. Peace iv. Wks. 1808 IX. 42 That the battle of Marignan was the battle of the Giants, that all the rest..were those of the Cranes and Pygmies. 1887H. M. Stanley Darkest Africa (1890) I. 251 A march of nine and a half miles on the 9th of November took us to a Pigmies' camp. 1898G. Burrows Land of Pigmies viii. 176 The term Akka, by which the Pigmies are known.
†b. Formerly applied to the chimpanzee and other anthropoid apes as the assumed originals of the pygmies of ancient story. Obs.
1699E. Tyson Ourang-outang 1 That the Pygmies of the Antients were a sort of Apes, and not of Humane Race, I shall endeavour to prove in the following Essay... A Puny Race of Mankind, call'd to this day, Homo Sylvestris, The Wild Man: Orang Outang, or a Man of the Woods. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. vii. i. 491 The Troglodyte of Bontius, the Drill of Purchas, and the Pigmy of Tyson, have all received this general name—oran outang, or wild man of the woods. 1778Camper in Phil. Trans. LXIX. 144 As the celebrated Dr. Tyson had found the organ of voice so similar to that of men in his Pigmy. 1863Huxley Man's Place Nat. i. 8 This ‘Pygmie’, Tyson tells us, ‘was brought from Angola’;..sufficient to prove his ‘Pygmie’ to be a young chimpanzee.
2. a. gen. A person of very small stature; a dwarf.
1520in Archæologia LIII. 17 A case of wode covered wt sylver..havyng a man and a woman called pygmeis. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 731/2 As very a manne is he that hath little stature, as hee that hathe a greate, and a Pigmay as a Geaunt. 1640J. Stoughton Def. & Distrib. Div., etc. ii. 67 Though a Gyant be taller then a Pygme, yet a Pygme upon his shoulders hath advantage of him. 1711Addison Spect. No. 98 ⁋2 A Woman, who was but a Pygmy without her Head-dress, appear'd like a Colossus upon putting it on. 1820Keats Hyperion i. 28 By her in stature the tall Amazon Had stood a pigmy's height.
b. fig. A person (or something personified) of very small importance, or having some specified quality in a very small degree. (Cf. giant A. 3.)
1592Kyd Sol. & Pers. ii. ii. 91 Ile send some Crane to combate with the Pigmew. 1682Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. iii. §14 Though Giants in Wealth and Dignity, we are but Dwarfs and Pygmies in Humanity. 1760Dodd Hymn Gd.-Nature Poems (1767) 6 We stood Mere pigmies on the strand. 1860Reade Cloister & H. lxxiv, These are heathen arts, and we but pigmies at them. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. I. viii. 110 They were intellectual pigmies beside the real leaders of that generation—Clay, Calhoun, and Webster.
c. transf. A thing that is very small of its kind.
1838T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 967 The plant..does not cease to vegetate, but it continues always a mere pigmy. 1849H. Miller Footpr. Creat. x. (1874) 181 They took their place..among the pigmies and abortions of creation. 1880Haughton Phys. Geog. ii. 49 Venus contains mountain ridges upwards of 25 miles in height, in comparison with which our giant Himalayas would appear like pygmies. 1905Westm. Gaz. 1 Mar. 12/1 Since the application of the dry process to photography..the detection of these planetary pigmies [asteroids] has been rendered much easier.
3. An elf, puck, pixy.
1611Cotgr., Pigmée, a Pigmey, dwarfe,..elfe, twattle. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xi, The Pygmies of Paracelsus, that is, his non-Adamicall men, or middle natures betwixt men and spirits. 1774–6J. Bryant Mythol. II. 350 The Greek and Roman Poets reduced the character of this Deity [Eros] to that of a wanton mischievous pigmy. 1830Scott Demonol. iv. 123 All tribes of Celtic origin assigned to..these silvan pigmies, more social habits. 1855Longfellow Hiaw. xviii. 7 They the fairies, and the pigmies, Plotted and conspired against him.
B. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the race of pygmies: see A. 1. (Partly attrib. use of the n.)
a1661B. Holyday Juvenal xiii. 240 The pygmie-warriour runs to fight In his dwarf-armour. 1704–5Pope Jan. & May 461 Their pigmy king, and little fairy queen, In circling dances gamboll'd on the green. 1749Collins Ode, Pop. Superstit. Highl. 143 In whose small vaults a pigmy-folk is found. 1870Bryant Homer I. iii. 80 Bring fearful battle to the pigmy race, Bloodshed and death.
2. a. Of persons and animals: Of very small size or stature, dwarf.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. v. 76 As a rare Painter draws..Here a huge Cyclop, there a Pigmé Elf. 1592Nashe P. Penilesse Wks. (Grosart) II. 65 Thou great baboune, thou Pigmie Braggart, thou Pamph[l]eter of nothing but peans. 1645Evelyn Diary 22–24 May, A pigmy sort of spaniels. 1735Somerville Chase i. 261 The pigmy Brood in ev'ry Furrow swims. 1823Scott Peveril xxxiii, ‘You have him before you, young man’, said the pigmy tenant of the cell, with an air of dignity. 1837Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) II. x. 153 The old showman..stirred up the souls of the pygmy people with one of the quickest tunes in the music book.
b. gen. Very small, diminutive, tiny. In Nat. Hist. often used in the names of species of animals that are very small of their kind. Also fig.
1595Shakes. John v. ii. 135 Prepar'd To whip this dwarfish warre, this Pigmy Armes From out the circle of his Territories. a1678Marvell in Casquet of Lit. (1873) I. 309/2 An arrow hurtel'd ere so high..Goes but a pigmy length. 1763Churchill Epist. to W. Hogarth 438 Bid the Deep Hush at thy pigmy voice her waves to sleep. 1771Pennant Syn. Quadr. 98 Pygmy Ape. 1781Latham Hist. Birds I. 256 Pygmy Parrakeet. 1803–6Wordsw. Ode Intim. Immort. vii, A six years' Darling of a pigmy size. 1830Edin. Encycl. XIII. 399/2 P[ithecus] sylvanus. The Pigmy ape inhabits Africa, the East Indies, and Ceylon,..and, when standing on its hinder legs, measures about two feet in height. 1893Lydekker Horns & Hoofs 358 The smallest of all the pigs is, however, the pigmy hog (Sus salvaninus). 1898Daily News 16 Aug. 6/2 The pigmy shrew..which really is the smallest mammal we have, and the least but one in all Europe.
C. Comb. as pygmy-cup, pygmy-folk, pygmy-minded adjs.; pygmy-flint Archæol., a type of microlith; pygmy-weed, an annual weed, Tillæa simplex, an inch or two high, found in the eastern United States.
1936Proc. Prehist. Soc. II. 223 The urns comprise two food-vessels, a *pigmy-cup and an encrusted urn. 1963H. N. Savory in Foster & Alcock Culture & Environment iii. 43 The Breach Farm barrow, with its dry-stone wall kerb and its fine biconical Pygmy Cup.
1907T. R. Holmes Anc. Britain 82 Of all stone implements the most curious are the tiny objects which are known as ‘*pygmy flints’. 1930F. Elgee Early Man in N.E. Yorkshire v. 31 The pygmy-flint men lived by hunting and fishing. 1963Field Archaeol. (Ordnance Survey) (ed. 4) 8 Various palæolithic objects like hand-axes and choppers, microliths (‘pygmy’ flints), arrow and lance heads.
1788W. Collins Ode on Pop. Superstitions Highlands of Scotl. 18 In..small vaults a *pigmy-folk is found.
1835Pusey in Liddon Life (1893) I. xiii. 320 One point in the plan did strike me as less *pigmy-minded.
Hence (nonce-wds.) ˈpygmy, ˈpigmy v. trans., to make a pygmy of, to reduce to insignificance, to dwarf; ˈpygmydom, the realm of pygmies; ˈpygmyhood, ˈpygmyism, ˈpygmyship, the condition, position, or character of a pygmy.
1658Sam. Austin Naps Parnass. E ij, Stand off thou Poetaster from the Press, Who *pygmi'st Martyrs with thy dwarf-like verse. 1828Blackw. Mag. XXIII. 598 They were pigmied to nothing in such a lordly neighbourhood. 1909Church Times 23 July 120/3 This great..church towers high above everything. It pigmies the parish church.
1892Booth-Tucker Catherine Booth lxxvii. II. 162 Lilliputian nobodies from the land of *pigmydom strutted out.
1892Swinburne Stud. Prose & Poetry (1894) 231 What we do not understand, we declare, from the height of our *pigmyhood, to be useless.
1837Bp. Inglis Let. in E. Churton Mem. J. Watson (1861) II. 99 Do not laugh at our *pigmyism.
1862Temple Bar Mag. V. 288 His *pigmyship. |