dwarf
pronunciation
How to pronounce dwarf in British English:
UK [dwɔːf]
How to pronounce dwarf in American English:
US [dwɔːrf]
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- Noun:
- a person who is abnormally small
- a legendary creature resembling a tiny old man; lives in the depths of the earth and guards buried treasure
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- Verb:
- make appear small by comparison
- check the growth of
Word Origin
- dwarf
- dwarf: [OE] Dwarf is descended via Germanic *dwergaz from Indo-European *dhwergwhos, which denoted ‘something tiny’. In English, it originally meant simply ‘person of abnormally small stature’; the modern connotation of ‘small manlike creature that lives underground and works metal’, a product of Germanic mythology, is not recorded until the late 18th century. The word’s German relative, zwerg, is the source of English quartz.=> quartz
- dwarf (n.)
- Old English dweorh, dweorg (West Saxon), duerg (Mercian), "very short human being," from Proto-Germanic *dweraz (cognates: Old Frisian dwerch, Old Saxon dwerg, Old High German twerg, German Zwerg, Old Norse dvergr), perhaps from PIE *dhwergwhos "something tiny," but with no established cognates outside Germanic. The mythological sense is 1770, from German (it seems never to have developed independently in English). Whilst in this and other ways the dwarfs do at times have dealings with mankind, yet on the whole they seem to shrink from man; they give the impression of a downtrodden afflicted race, which is on the point of abandoning its ancient home to new and more powerful invaders. There is stamped on their character something shy and something heathenish, which estranges them from intercourse with christians. They chafe at human faithlessness, which no doubt would primarily mean the apostacy from heathenism. In the poems of the Mid. Ages, Laurin is expressly set before us as a heathen. It goes sorely against the dwarfs to see churches built, bell-ringing ... disturbs their ancient privacy; they also hate the clearing of forests, agriculture, new fangled pounding-machinery for ore. ["Teutonic Mythology," Jacob Grimm, transl. Stallybrass, 1883] The shift of the Old English guttural at the end of the word to modern -f is typical (compare enough, draft). Old English plural dweorgas became Middle English dwarrows, later leveled down to dwarfs. The use of dwarves for the legendary race was popularized by J.R.R. Tolkien. As an adjective, from 1590s.
- dwarf (v.)
- "to render dwarfish," 1620s, from dwarf (n.); sense of "to cause to look small" is from 1850. Related: Dwarfed; dwarfing.
Antonym
Example
- 1. The burned-out star , called a white dwarf , appears as a white dot in the centre .
- 2. Ecotourism was good for daryl the dwarf .
- 3. It became a french bestseller : all collaborating daddies seemed excused alongside the " yellow dwarf " .
- 4. About 40 percent of red dwarf stars may have earth-sized planets orbiting them that have the right conditions for life .
- 5. Because a planet that close to its star would dim the dwarf 's light as it passes .