Etymologically
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gnome

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈnəʊ̯m/ (UK); /ˈnoʊ̯m/, /ˈnɔʊ̯m/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gnome,[2][3][4][5][6] from New Latin gnomus,[2][3][4][5][6] a word used in the 16th century by Paracelsus for elemental earth beings.[5][3] It is perhaps from a Greek *gēnómos “earth-dweller”,[4][5] or, less likely, from Greek gnṓmē “intelligence”.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of a race of tiny spirits believed to live inside the earth and guard its treasures (1712–14).[7][4][5] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1661.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the theory of Paracelsus, gnomes were the elemental beings of earth.[3][1] The word was popularized in English children's literature in the early 19th century for the red-capped dwarfs of German and Swiss folklore,[5] and garden figures of them were imported from Germany in the late 1860s.[5] The OED records the garden statue from 1938, and from 1964 the gnomes of Zurich, Swiss bankers and financiers.[7][5][6]

Timeline

  • 1712–14 – an earth-dwelling spirit guarding treasure.[7][4]
  • 1889 – (US) various hummingbirds.[7]
  • 1938 – a garden statue of a gnome.[7]
  • 1964 – an international banker, especially a Swiss one.[7][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. In folklore, a dwarflike creature who lives underground and guards treasure.
  2. A small statue of such a creature, placed in a garden.
  3. An international banker or financier, as in the gnomes of Zurich.
  4. A small person of strange or misshapen appearance.

Word family

  • gnomish
  • gnomelike

Usage notes

A separate word gnome “a pithy saying, a maxim” (1577) is from Greek gnṓmē “judgment, opinion”, from gignṓskein “to know”;[7][2][3][5] its derivative is gnomic.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press