| 释义 |
pygmyn.adj. Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymon: Latin Pygmaeus. Etymology: < classical Latin Pygmaeus (noun, usually in plural, Pygmaeī ; post-classical Latin Pygmeus ) member of a legendary race of dwarfs usually located in Ethiopia or India, (adjective) of or belonging to this race < ancient Greek πυγμαῖος (noun, usually in plural, Πυγμαῖοι ) member of a legendary race of dwarfs usually located in Ethiopia or India, (adjective) dwarfish < πυγμή fist, in Hellenistic Greek also measure of length from the elbow to the knuckles ( < πύξ with the fist ( < the same Indo-European base as classical Latin pugnus fist: see pugnacious adj.) + -μη , suffix forming nouns) + -αῖος , suffix forming adjectives. Compare Middle French, French pygmée , †pigmée (noun) member of a legendary race of dwarfs (1491; compare earlier pygmain pygman n.), very small person or being, dwarf (1611 in Cotgrave), member of a modern people of low average height (1796), (adjective) very small (15th cent., now obsolete as adjective), Old Occitan pigmeu (14th cent.), Catalan pigmeu, Spanish pigmeo (1490), Italian pigmeo (a1470 as pimmeo). With the β. forms compare e.g. Hebrew n., Phariseu , Pharisew , Middle English variants of Pharisee n., the male fornames Matthew (see Matthew n.) and Andrew (see Andrew n.), etc. Compare also Old Occitan pigmeu, Catalan pigmeu, and also Middle French pigmeau (1501; 1482 as pymeau). A. n. 1. the world > people > ethnicities > race > person of mythical races > [noun] a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 11 Ȝif after þe trauaille of Hercules..a pigmey [L. pygmæus] boskeþ hym to bataille..who myȝte þanne leue to laughe? a1425 (c1384) (Corpus Oxf.) (1850) Ezek. xxvii. 11 Pigmeis [L. Pygmæi] that weren in thi touris hangiden her arewgirdlis in thi wallis. c1450 in (1924) 21 392 (MED) Sho wol them cure..With her swete byhold..fful euen and lytle of stature Al thogh sho wer of pygmeys nature. ?1527 L. Andrewe tr. sig. hiiv Pigmeis be men & women & but one cubite longe dwellinge in the mountaynes of ynde. a1544 R. Barlow tr. M. Fernández de Enciso (1932) 90 In this lande be the pigmeos which fyghteth with the cranys. 1600 W. Shakespeare ii. i. 252 I will..fetch you a haire off the great Chams beard: doe you any embassage to the Pigmies . View more context for this quotation 1675 J. Barnes 21 Eucompsus had by this time pretty well confirmed us all in the opinion, that these were Pygmies. 1696 E. Phillips (new ed.) Pigmy, a sort of People, if there be any such, said to be not above a Cubit high. 1711 J. Addison No. 31. ¶2 That part of India which is said to be inhabited by the Pigmies. a1797 E. Burke Fourth Let. Peace Regicide Directory France in (1991) IX. 70 That the battle of Marignan was the battle of the Giants, that all the rest..were those of the Cranes and Pygmies. 1838 XI. 209 The fabulous stories of the giants and pygmies of antiquity, the former of whom are said to have made war against Jupiter. 1959 I. Sells tr. E. Mireaux 21 The Iliad pictures a race of dwarf pygmies, who dwelt on the very shores of Ocean. 1997 T. Hughes 178 In another corner the Queen of the Pygmies Who had challenged Juno and lost. the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > person of small-sized race > [noun] 1841 11 lxiv M. Lafond de Lurcy..describes as inhabiting Borneo, Nikobar, Timor, &c., a race of black pigmies, whose height seldom exceeds 4½ feet. 1866 4 266 The average stature of the male [Negrito] does not, it is stated, exceed four foot six inches; but..the actual stature is probably about the same as those of the pigmies of the Andamans and Malay Peninsula. 1887 H. M. Stanley (1890) I. 251 A march of nine and a half miles on the 9th of November took us to a Pigmies' camp. 1898 G. Burrows viii. 176 The term Akka, by which the Pigmies are known. 1932 L. Golding iii. vi. 538 The people seemed stranger to him than the pygmies of the African jungle. 1980 M. Crichton 91 Pygmies aren't friendly anymore either. 2002 G. M. Eberhart II. 443/1 Possibly the ancestors of the Pygmies (Mbuti, Twa, and Mbenga peoples), who are short-statured, forest-dwelling groups of Central Africa. 2. the world > life > the body > bodily height > shortness > [noun] > person 1533 T. More vii. p. ccccxvii As very a man is he that hath lytle stature, as he that hath a great, & a Pygmey as a Geaunt. 1536 Inventory in (1892) 53 17 A case of wode covered wt sylver..havyng a man and a woman called pygmeis. a1639 J. Stoughton (1640) ii. 67 Though a Gyant be taller then a Pygme, yet a Pygme upon his shoulders hath advantage of him. 1672 H. Herbert Narrative in (1990) XXX. 310 Every thing is a pigmy compared to a Portuguise. 1711 J. Addison No. 98. ¶2 A Woman, who was but a Pigmie without her Head-dress, appear'd like a Colossus upon putting it on. 1776 E. Gibbon I. ii. 59 In the same manner..as some children always remain pygmies, whose infant limbs have been too closely confined. 1820 J. Keats Hyperion: a Fragm. i, in 147 By her in stature the tall Amazon Had stood a pigmy's height. 1997 (Nexis) 19 Aug. c3 At McCallie [high school]... seventh graders used to be called pygmies. the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > a small quantity or amount > person or thing having a quality in small degree the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > one who is unimportant > of little importance ?1592 sig. E2 Ile send some Crane to combate with the Pigmew. a1682 Sir T. Browne (1716) iii. 100 Though Giants in Wealth and Dignity, we are but Dwarfs and Pygmies in Humanity. 1710 M. Chudleigh sig. D2 We..think our selves Giants in Understanding, when we are but Pygmies in sense. 1760 W. Dodd Hymn to Good-nature in (1767) 6 We stood Mere pigmies on the strand. 1847 61 590 He stands, a modern Gulliver, pre-eminent in moral giantship amidst surrounding pigmies. 1888 J. Bryce I. viii. 110 They were intellectual pigmies beside the real leaders of that generation. 1931 T. S. Moore 276 Was ever pygmy so huge in his own conceit! 1979 30 Apr. 12/6 The British people..threw out Lloyd George, and replaced him with political pygmies. 1996 29 Dec. 28/2 The giants of the past often looked like pygmies to their contemporaries. the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [noun] > that which is small > a small thing > thing small of its kind 1838 T. Thomson 967 The plant..does not cease to vegetate, but it continues always a mere pigmy. 1880 S. Haughton ii. 49 Venus contains mountain ridges upwards of 25 miles in height, in comparison with which our giant Himalayas would appear like pygmies. 1905 1 Mar. 12/1 Since the application of the dry process to photography..the detection of these planetary pigmies [i.e. asteroids] has been rendered much easier. 1958 R. Garnett tr. B. Heuvelmans xvi. 361 The African forest rhinoceros is smaller than its brothers on the steppes; perhaps it is a true pygmy like its hypothetical Liberian cousin. 2006 Jan. 71/1 Around the corner is the Jing An Hilton... It's now a pygmy on the changing Shanghai skyline. the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > fairy or elf > [noun] 1611 R. Cotgrave Pigmée, a Pigmey, dwarfe,..elfe, twattle. 1646 Sir T. Browne iv. xi The Pygmies of Paracelsus, that is, his non-Adamicall men, or middle natures betwixt men and spirits. View more context for this quotation 1774 J. Bryant II. 350 The Greek and Roman Poets reduced the character of this Deity [i.e. Eros] to that of a wanton, mischievous pigmy. 1830 W. Scott iv. 123 All tribes of Celtic origin assigned to..these silvan pigmies, more social habits. 1855 H. W. Longfellow xviii. 243 They the fairies and the pigmies, Plotted and conspired against him. the world > animals > mammals > order Primates > suborder Anthropoidea (higher primates) > [noun] > group Catarrhinae (Old World monkey) > member of superfamily Hominoidea (apes and humans) > family Pongidae (ape) 1699 E. Tyson 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. 1774 O. Goldsmith IV. 189 Ourang Outang, or Wild Man of the Woods,..the Troglodyte of Bontius, the Drill of Purchas, and the Pygmy of Tyson, have all received this general name. 1779 (Royal Soc.) 69 144 As the celebrated Dr. Tyson had found the organ of voice so similar to that of men in his Pigmy. 1863 T. H. Huxley i. 8 This ‘Pygmie’, Tyson tells us, ‘was brought from Angola’;..sufficient to prove his ‘Pygmie’ to be a young chimpanzee. B. adj. (Originally an attributive use of the noun.) 1. the world > life > the body > bodily height > shortness > [adjective] the world > people > ethnicities > race > person of mythical races > [adjective] 1592 T. Nashe (Brit. Libr. copy) sig. F2 v Thou great Baboune, thou Pigmee Braggart, thou Pamphleter of nothing but Pæans. 1598 J. Marston ii. vi. sig. E8v Huge tongu'd pigmy brats. 1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas i. v. 147 As a rare Painter, drawes..Heere a huge Cyclope, there a Pigme Elfe. a1661 B. Holyday tr. Juvenal (1673) xiii. 240 The pygmie-warriour [L. Pygmaeus..bellator] runs to fight In his dwarf-armour. 1709 A. Pope Chaucer's January & May in 206 Their Pigmy King, and little Fairy Queen, In circling Dances gambol'd on the Green. 1727 A. Pope 14 Thy Pigmy Children, and thy tiny Spouse, the Baby Playthings that adorn thy House. a1759 W. Collins in (1788) 1 ii. 72 In whose small vaults a pigmy-folk is found. 1823 W. Scott III. x. 265 ‘You have him before you, young man,’ said the pigmy tenant of the cell, with an air of dignity. 1837 N. Hawthorne (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. 1870 W. C. Bryant tr. Homer I. iii. 80 Bring fearful battle to the pigmy race, Bloodshed and death. 1986 M. Fisher (BNC) 39 At times..I throw down the pen in despair; but it is soon taken up again, and, like a pygmy Antaeus, it seems to have imbibed fresh vigour from its prostration. 2000 (Nexis) 29 July You could be hiding cameras, pygmy folk come to get me. the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > smallness > [adjective] > extremely small a1616 W. Shakespeare (1623) v. ii. 135 Prepar'd To whip this dwarfish warre, this Pigmy Armes From out the circle of his Territories. View more context for this quotation 1735 W. Somervile i. 261 The pigmy Brood in ev'ry Furrow swims. 1763 C. Churchill 21 Bid the deep Hush at thy Pigmy voice her waves to sleep. 1807 W. Wordsworth Ode in II. 152 A four years' Darling of a pigmy size! View more context for this quotation 1825 J. Clare in W. Hone (1826) I. 883 An arrow, hurtel'd ere so high..Goes, but a pigmy length. 1872 C. D. Warner 284 The home of three thousand people..a pygmy city, inhabited by mites, as we look down upon it. 1944 W. de la Mare 73 The seeds..Have pushed up pygmy Shoots of green. 1972 226/2 Luminous material probably composed of stars and pygmy galaxies is tenuously distributed..between the giant galaxies. 2003 H. S. Thompson iii. 269 The American Century is over, we are still beating up on pygmy nations on the other side of the world. the world > animals > animal body > [adjective] > small > pygmy 1771 T. Pennant 98 Pygmy Ape. 1781 J. Latham I. 256 Pygmy Parrakeet. 1819 (1830) 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. 1893 R. Lydekker 358 The smallest of all the pigs is, however, the pigmy hog (Sus salvaninus). 1922 5 132 The pygmy right whale..differs from the right whale in having a dorsal fin and in its much smaller size. 1995 1 May 16/6 The fashionable animal to possess now is the pygmy goat. 2005 (U.K. ed.) Dec. 101/1 Pygmy chimps, or bonobos (P. paniscus), live in matriarchal societies. 1844 6 Apr. 108/2 (heading) Pigmy tribes in Abyssinia. 1873 Aug. 267/1 During the entire three weeks' stay of the doctor at Munsa's court, he never had the good fortune to see a pygmy woman. 1956 7 78 For the Batwa information on this point [of marital practice] is scanty. The most definite evidence is..given on the authority of a Pygmy chief. 1962 C. M. Turnbull xii. 217 Subjecting Pygmy boys to the village initiation, known as the nkumbi. 1994 18 Feb. 41/3 His partner..found some tapes of Pygmy chants recorded decades ago. Compounds 1933 H. J. Coolidge in 18 1 (title) Pan paniscus. Pigmy chimpanzee from south of the Congo River. 1966 R. Morris & D. Morris viii. 255 The strange bonobo, or pygmy chimpanzee..was originally described in 1929 as a small, black-faced race of the common chimpanzee. 2000 C. Tudge ii. xix. 487 Pan paniscus was traditionally called the ‘pygmy chimpanzee’, but most primatologists these days favour the alternative name ‘bonobo’ for the latter; indeed, the term ‘pygmy chimpanzee’ can be considered defunct. 1935 26 Apr. 19/6 In the central grave were found two cinerary urns and a pygmy cup containing fragments of charred bones and charcoal. 1963 H. N. Savory in I. L. Foster & L. Alcock iii. 43 The Breach Farm barrow, with its dry-stone wall kerb and its fine biconical Pygmy Cup. 1990 J. Dyer (1997) 100 Amongst early Bronze Age ceramics mention must be made of a series of tiny vessels called pygmy or incense cups. the world > time > relative time > the past > history or knowledge about the past > [noun] > archaeology > artefacts society > occupation and work > equipment > tool > types of tools generally > prehistoric tool > [noun] > types of 1907 T. R. Holmes 82 Of all stone implements the most curious are the tiny objects which are known as ‘pygmy flints’. 1930 F. Elgee v. 28 Pygmy-flints are usually found on sandy soils. 2002 (Nexis) 1 Dec. (News) 8 Unusual artifacts—delicate ivory pieces..and the famed Pigmy-flints. 1874 W. B. Dawkins x. 378 The pigmy hippopotamus has lived..in other districts of the Mediterranean region... I identified in the Oxford museum a last lower true molar. 1905 26 140 Liberian streams and forests are for the most part frequented by the pygmy hippopotamus. 1958 R. Garnett tr. B. Heuvelmans i. 42 Around 1870 a young pygmy hippopotamus, which weighed barely 30 pounds, was sent to the Dublin Zoo. 1991 65 857/1 Recent multi-disciplinary excavations in Cyprus..suggest that people were at least partially responsible for the extinction of local endemics, primarily pygmy hippopotamus (Phanourios minutus ). 1958 G. Durrell iii. 116 About the size of a large mouse.., and with a tiny face and bright hazel eyes, the pigmy marmoset looks like something out of a fairy tale. 1980 61 385 A study..on the ecology of Cebuella pygmaea (pygmy marmoset) reinforces the impression of extreme specialization in this tiniest member of the Callitrichidae. 2001 55 2578/1 The smallest adult Platyrrhine, the pygmy marmoset (Cebuella), is only 150 mm long (head and body) and weighs 150 g. 1835 E. B. Pusey in H. P. Liddon et al. (1893) I. xiii. 320 One point in the plan did strike me as less pigmy-minded. 1920 7 Feb. 12/1 Many of them have resented the President's attacks upon the Republicans as pigmy-minded partisans. 2006 (Nexis) 2 Apr. (Culture) 42 This is no pygmy-minded giant-slaying but the honest, comical truth. 1794 G. Shaw 5 Didelphis Pygmaea. The Pygmy Opossum..(exclusive of its diminutive size, not exceeding that of a common domestic mouse) forms as it were a kind of connecting link between the genera of Didelphis and Sciurus. 1829 I. xliv. 241 Among some dead wood near the stream Mr Frankland caught a pigmy oppossum. 1858 S. F. Baird Birds (U.S. War Dept.: Rep. Explor. Route Pacific IX) 62 in (33rd Congr., 2nd Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc. 91) Glaucidium gnoma, Wagler. The Pigmy Owl... The smallest owl known to inhabit North America. 1903 5 81 The capture of a pygmy owl (Glaucidium gnoma) in the streets of American Fork, Utah, a few days ago excited some interest. 1958 E. T. Gilliard 211/1 The Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum) of Eurasian hill-forests is smaller than a starling. 1999 Dec. p. xxix With a name nearly as long as its seven-inch height, the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl is at an impasse with Tucson developers. 1927 23 June 27/3 I wonder if ‘WO3’..ever ‘witnessed the birth’ of a pygmy 'possum? 1970 D. L. Ride 84 There are three genera of pigmy possums; the most common is Cercartetus which has four species. 1995 R. Strahan (ed. 2) 207 Pygmy-possums are primarily insectivorous but the Eastern Pygmy-possum includes much nectar in its diet. 1781 T. Pennant II. 481 Pygmy Shrew. 1898 16 Aug. 6/2 The pigmy shrew..which really is the smallest mammal we have, and the least but one in all Europe. 1952 L. H. Matthews iii. 46 The pygmy shrew.., S. minutus, the only member of the family found in Ireland, is distributed throughout Great Britain. 1995 June 27/1 Elk Island is home to not only North America's largest mammal, the wood bison, but also the smallest, the pygmy shrew. 1818 A. Eaton (ed. 2) ii. 465 Tillæa..ascendens..pigmy weed... Very minute. 1843 J. Torrey I. 251 Tillæa simplex. Pigmy-weed. 1991 C. Stace 375 C. aquatica, Pigmyweed... C. helmsii, New Zealand Pigmyweed... C. decumbens, Scilly Pigmyweed. 2003 (Nexis) 2 Feb. 14 The Australian swamp stonecrop, or New Zealand pygmyweed, is considered the most pernicious of the top 15 invasive plants. Derivatives 1865 17 May 9/7 His proportions are too colossal to allow him to walk the streets of our electoral Lilliput with safety to the remnant of aboriginal pigmydom. 1892 F. Booth-Tucker II. lxxvii. 162 Lilliputian nobodies from the land of pigmydom strutted out. 1994 (Nexis) 18 Apr. e5 No wonder Macbeth himself..shrank into a condition of pygmydom whenever he shared the stage with her. 1846 C. G. F. Gore III. xix. 115 But why feel surprised at his sinking into pigmyhood. 1892 A. C. Swinburne (1894) 231 What we do not understand, we declare, from the height of our pigmyhood, to be useless. 1974 9 Nov. 4/6 Out of it is certain to come a cast of new national figures who will stand far above pygmyhood. 2000 M. E. O'Hanlon in M. E. O'Hanlon & R. Welsch (2004) i. 5 Material culture played a subordinate role to height in the constitution by Whites of ‘pygmyhood’. 1837 Bp. Inglis Let. in E. Churton (1861) II. 99 Do not laugh at our pigmyism. 1991 30 Apr. 19/8 To associate all this education with cultural pygmyism..is to speak the unspeakable. 2005 (Nexis) 15 Nov. (City) 6 I am surprised that no-one thought fit to accuse Meyer of pygmyism! 1690 T. D'Urfey iii. 119 I would not whip With Argument, your Pigmyship Too soon. 1862 5 288 His pigmyship. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022). pygmyv. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: pygmy n. rare. the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > be unimportant [verb (transitive)] > make less important or unimportant 1658 T. Flatman sig. Eij Stand off thou Poetaster from the Press, Who pygmi'st Martyrs with thy dwarf-like verse. 1828 23 598 They were pigmied to nothing in such a lordly neighbourhood. 1909 23 July 120/3 This great..church towers high above everything. It pigmies the parish church. 2006 (Nexis) 14 Jan. e04 At least the Canadian Open didn't get pygmied to that level. But it has been reduced again. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022). <  n.adj.a1387 v.1658 |
