Etymologically
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gnome

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡnom/[1]

Forms

gnome m (plural gnomes, feminine gnomide or gnomesse or gnomette)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin gnomus, a word of the alchemists used by Paracelsus as a synonym of Pygmaei “pygmies”.[2][3][4][5][6] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.[3][5][7] It may be a mistake for “genomus”, a Greek type meaning “earth-dweller”, formed like a Greek word for “sea-dweller”;[2][3][4] several sources add the influence of Ancient Greek γνώμη (gnṓmē, “thought, intelligence”), the gnomes being seen as intelligent spirits of the earth.[3][4][8][9] The TLFi, after the Oxford English Dictionary, doubts that Paracelsus coined it himself.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vigenère's Livy (1583) has it for a small spirit that presides over the earth and what it holds.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the system of the Cabbalists the gnomes were the spirits of earth, as the sylphs were those of air, the undines of water and the salamanders of fire; they were small, misshapen beings who guarded the treasures underground.[10][2][11] From 1867 a gnome is also a very small, misshapen man.[2][3] The feminine gnomide (1670) is a rare learned word.[3]

Timeline

  • 1583 – An earth spirit (Vigenère).[2][4]
  • 1670 – Gnomide, a female gnome.[3]
  • 1762 – First recorded by the Académie.[2]
  • 1867 – A very small, misshapen man.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (mythology) A gnome, a small, misshapen spirit living inside the earth and guarding its treasures.[11][9]
  2. A very small, misshapen person.[11][9]

Usage notes

Littré also has a feminine gnome “maxim of the ancient Greek sages”, from Greek gnṓmē; it survives as the adjective gnomique.[10][11] The word is written without a circumflex, although the o is closed.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 177a
  7. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
  8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert