midget

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɪd͡ʒɪt/^[1]

Etymology

Formed in English from midge “small biting fly” with the diminutive suffix -et.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Something very small, especially a small animal or insect (1816 in Merriam-Webster; 1839 in Etymonline for a kind of tiny biting fly; 1865 in Barnhart for anything very small).^[5][4][3][7]

Semantic evolution

In American English midget was at first a popular variant of midge for the tiny biting flies of New England.^[4][8] It was applied to an unusually small person by 1854 (1865 in the OED; 1884 in Barnhart),^[4][8][3][7] especially one exhibited publicly as a curiosity.^[8] In the 20th century it came to be used attributively of small-scale things, as in midget submarine (1908) and midget golf,^[8] and of a small vehicle or aircraft (1930), including a class of small racing cars.^[8][2][5] In the 19th century it was also a pet form of the name Margaret.^[4]

Timeline

• 1816 – something much smaller than usual.^[5]
• 1839 – a tiny biting fly (American English).^[4]
• 1854 – a very small person.^[4]
• 1908 – attributive, small-scale, as midget submarine.^[8]
• 1930 – a small vehicle or aircraft.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (often offensive) An extremely small person of otherwise normal proportions.
2. Something, such as an animal, much smaller than usual for its kind.
3. A small, single-seat, open-wheel racing car.

Adjective

1. Very small, or of a class smaller than the usual size; miniature.

Word family

• midgetism
• midget golf

Related words

• midge
• dwarf
• miniature
• mite

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster labels the word sometimes offensive when applied to a person, and Random House says it is not in technical use;^[5][6] Wiktionary notes that it is generally considered derogatory, even when it describes something other than a person.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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