dwarf

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dwerf (also dwergh, dwerew),^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English dweorh (also dweorg, Mercian duerg),^[6][2][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *dwergaz.^[6][7][8][9] Its cognates are Old Frisian dwerch, Old Saxon gidwerg, Old High German twerg, whence German Zwerg, and Old Norse dvergr.^{[10][2][5][8]} The modern spelling with -f reflects the Middle English change of the final guttural sound.^[2][11] Its further origin is unknown,^[10][8][5] and the word has no established cognates outside Germanic.^[12][6] Etymonline mentions a possible source in *dʰwergʷʰos (“something tiny”),^[6][13] and Merriam-Webster compares Sanskrit words for a demon and for bending or injuring;^[3] Liberman rejects these and the comparisons with Avestan and Greek words.^[12] According to Liberman, the r arose from an earlier s (Germanic *dwezgaz), so that the word shares its root with dwǣs (“foolish”) and dwaes, whence dwaas (“foolish”): dwarves were at first supernatural beings, like gods and elves, believed to cause madness and disease, and were not originally thought of as small.^[12] German Zwerg is also, through a dialect form, the source of quartz.^[13][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who is unusually small, in the Épinal Glossary of about 700;^[10][12][2] Old English dweorh also named an illness with fever, probably thought to be caused by a supernatural being, as in the Metrical Charm Against a Dwarf.^[10]

Semantic evolution

By about 1200, according to Etymonline, the word was also used of an animal or plant much smaller than its kind;^[6] the OED records this sense from 1593.^[10] The figurative sense, an inferior or insignificant person or thing, dates from 1575.^[10] The dwarf of Germanic and especially Scandinavian mythology, a short, stocky being living in rocks and skilled in metalworking, is recorded in English only from 1761, in Thomas Percy;^[10][13] the Shorter Oxford dates the mythical sense to Middle English.^[14] In astronomy dwarf has named a star of low luminosity and size since 1912.^[10] The adjective is recorded from 1597,^[2][3] and the verb, to stunt the growth of, from 1623;^[10] the sense "to make seem small by comparison" dates from 1745.^[10][6] In Cheshire dialect dwarf could mean a deformed person who was not necessarily small, and in Herefordshire and Kent dwarf's money meant ancient coins found on the coast.^[15] The plural dwarves stands beside dwarfs.^[14][16]

Timeline

• c700 – Old English duerg, a very small person.^[2][12]
• Old English – an illness caused by a supernatural being (until c1200).^[10]
• c1200 – an undersized animal or plant.^[6]
• c1300 – Middle English dwerew.^[2]
• 1575 – figurative, an insignificant person or thing.^[10]
• 1597 – adjective.^[2][3]
• 1623 – verb, to stunt the growth of.^[10]
• 1745 – verb, to make seem small by comparison.^[10]
• 1761 – the dwarf of Germanic mythology.^[10]
• 1912 – (astronomy) a dwarf star.^[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (often offensive) A person of unusually short stature, especially one with a medical condition such as dwarfism.
2. An animal or plant much smaller than is usual for its kind.
3. (folklore) In Germanic and Scandinavian myth, and in fantasy fiction, one of a race of short, stocky beings that live in the mountains and work metals.
4. (astronomy) A dwarf star.

Verb

1. To make something seem small or unimportant by comparison: The new tower dwarfs the old church beside it.
2. To stunt the growth or development of.

Adjective

1. Much smaller than others of its kind: a dwarf apple tree.

Word family

• dwarfish
• dwarfishness
• dwarfishly
• dwarflike
• dwarfness
• dwarfism
• semidwarf
• subdwarf

Related words

• quartz
• elf
• midget
• pygmy

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes dwarf, midget and pygmy: a dwarf is a person whose growth has been checked, a midget (not a technical term) a person of normal proportions but very small, and a pygmy properly a member of certain small-statured peoples of Africa and Asia.^[17] The Shorter Oxford labels the sense "abnormally undersized person" offensive.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e f Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House