gnome French · revision 15735

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1583, Vigenère|origins=la-new gnomus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ɡnom/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''gnome''' ''m'' (plural gnomes, feminine gnomide or gnomesse or gnomette)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la-new|gnomus]], a word of the alchemists used by Paracelsus as a synonym of Pygmaei “pygmies”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|4, 177a) The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Académie 9) It may be a mistake for “genomus”, a Greek type meaning “earth-dweller”, formed like a Greek word for “sea-dweller”;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) several sources add the influence of [[grc|γνώμη|tr=gnṓmē|t=thought, intelligence]], the gnomes being seen as intelligent spirits of the earth.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989)^(Larousse) The TLFi, after the Oxford English Dictionary, doubts that Paracelsus coined it himself.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Vigenère's Livy (1583) has it for a small spirit that presides over the earth and what it holds.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==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.^(Littré 1873)^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007) From 1867 a ''gnome'' is also a very small, misshapen man.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The feminine ''gnomide'' (1670) is a rare learned word.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1583 – An earth spirit (Vigenère).^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1670 – ''Gnomide'', a female gnome.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1762 – First recorded by the Académie.^(TLFi)

+ * 1867 – A very small, misshapen man.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(mythology)'' A [[m|en|gnome]], a small, misshapen spirit living inside the earth and guarding its [[m|en|treasure|alt=treasures]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # A very small, [[m|en|misshapen]] person.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|gnome]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Littré also has a feminine ''gnome'' “maxim of the ancient Greek sages”, from Greek ''gnṓmē''; it survives as the adjective ''gnomique''.^(Littré 1873)^(Petit Robert 2007) The word is written without a circumflex, although the ''o'' is closed.^(Larousse)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}