Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Pygmy |
PygmyNoun1. An unusually small individual. 2. Any member of various peoples having an average height of less than five feet. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "pygmy" was first used: sometime around 1384. (references) |
Etymology: Pygmy \Pyg"my\, noun; plural Pygmies. [Latin pygmaeus, Greek, from the fist, a measure of length, the distance from the elbow to the knuckles, about 131 inches. Compare to Pugnacious, Fist.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Generally speaking, a pygmy is anything of unusually small size. This can be, for example, an animal (such as the pygmy hippopotamus).In an anthropological context, a Pygmy is specifically a member of one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below one and a half metres on average). Pygmies are found throughout central Africa, with smaller numbers in south-east Asia. The most closely studied group are the Mbuti of the Ituri rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which were the subject of a study by Colin Turnbull (The Forest People (1962)). Among the other African groups are the Aka, Baka, Binga, Efé, and Twa.
The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal communal improvisation. Simha Arom says that the level of polyphonic complexity of Pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient, some Pygmy groups being the first know cultures in some areas of Africa. Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events and activities.
Formally the music consists of at most only four parts, and can be described as an, "ostinato with variations," or similar to a passacaglia, in that it is cycical. In fact its based on repitition of periods of equal length, which each singer divides using different rhythmic figures specific to different repetoires. This interesting case of Ethnomusicology and Ethnomathematics creates a detailed surface and endless variations of not only the same period repeated, but the same piece of music. As in some Balinese gamelan these patterns are based based on a super-pattern which is never heard. The Pygmies themselves do not learn or think of their music in this theoretical framework, but learn the music growing up.
Among the Asian groups are the Agta and the Batak (in the Philippines), the Semang (on the Malay Peninsula) and the residents of the Andaman Islands.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pygmy."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In the African Pygmy mythology, the most important god of the Pygmy pantheon is Khonvoum (also Khonuum, Kmvoum, Chorum), a god of the hunt who wields a bow made from two snakes (it appears to humans as a rainbow). After sunset every day, Khonvoum gathers fragments of the stars and uses them to revitalize the sun for the next day. He occasionally contacts mortals through an elephant (named Gor) or a chameleon. Khonvoum created mankind from clay. Black people were made from black clay, white people came from white clay and the Pygmies themselves came from red clay.Arebati is a lunar deity and Sky Father. In some sources, he was said to have created humanity from clay, instead of Khonvoum.
Tore is a god of the forests and hunting. He appears as a storm and hides in rainbows. Most importantly, Tore appears as a leopard in the initiation rites. He is possibly
Negoogunogumbar is a child-eating giant. Obrigwabibikwa is a dwarf who can change himself into a reptile.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pygmy mythology."
Synonym: PygmySynonym: pigmy (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Littleness | Dwarf, pygmy, pigmy, Liliputian, chit, pigwidgeon, urchin, elf; atomy, dandiprat; doll, puppet; Tom Thumb, Hop-o'-my-thumb; manikin, mannikin; homunculus, dapperling,dwarf, pygmy, pigmy, Liliputian, chit, pigwidgeon, urchin, elf; atomy, dandiprat; doll, puppet; Tom Thumb, Hop-o'-my-thumb; manikin, mannikin; homunculus, dapperling, cock-sparrow. |
Adjective: little; small; minute, diminutive, microscopic; microzoal; inconsiderable; (unimportant); exiguous, puny, tiny, wee, petty, minikin, miniature, pygmy, pigmy, elfin; undersized; dwarf, dwarfed, dwarfish; spare, stunted, limited; cramp, cramped; pollard, Liliputian, dapper, pocket; portative, portable; duodecimo; dumpy, squat; short. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Pygmy |
| English words defined with "pygmy": Baiomys ♦ Cebuella, Cupressus goveniana ♦ genus Baiomys, genus Cebuella, genus Kogia, genus Sistrurus, Goslet, gowen cypress, ground rattler, Gue'vi ♦ Kleeneboc, Kogia ♦ massasauga, massasauga rattler, Musk deer ♦ Pygmean, Pygmies ♦ Sistrurus, Sistrurus catenatus, Sistrurus miliaris. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "pygmy": THUMB. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "pygmy": Pommelion. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The lion takes long strides but the path is worn smooth by pygmy armies (The Wind and the Lion; writing credit: John Milius) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Jungle Jim in Pygmy Island (1950) Half-Pint Pygmy (1948) The Pygmy Hunt (1938) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Plate 2. The Pygmy Sperm Whale. Kogia Goodei, True. The Blackfish. Globiocephalus melas (Traill.). Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Discrimination | Congo | Societal discrimination remained an obstacle to the advancement of certain groups, particularly women, Tutsis, Muslims, and the indigenous Pygmy (Batwa) people. (references) |
Economic History | Equatorial Guinea | The other three ethnic group are found on the coast of Rio Muni and include the Ndowe and Kombe(about 3,000 each) and the Bujebas (about 2,000). The pygmy populations have long been integrated into the dominant Bantu-speaking cultures. (references) |
Indigenous People | Gabon | The NGO described the children born to Pygmy families in these situations as the "property" of the master. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Pygmy" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 64.52% of the time. "Pygmy" is used about 31 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 64.52% | 20 | 78,262 |
| Noun (singular) | 29.03% | 9 | 117,287 |
| Noun (proper) | 6.45% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 31 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "pygmy": pygmy antelope ♦ pygmy chimpanzee ♦ pygmy cypress ♦ pygmy goose ♦ pygmy marmoset ♦ pygmy mouse ♦ pygmy musk deer ♦ pygmy nuthatch ♦ pygmy owl ♦ pygmy parrot ♦ pygmy right whale ♦ pygmy shrew ♦ pygmy sperm whale. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
pygmy goat | 352 | palm pygmy | 13 |
pygmy | 144 | african goat pygmy | 12 |
pygmy date palm | 51 | pygmy tribe | 11 |
marmoset pygmy | 48 | association goat national pygmy | 10 |
african hedgehog pygmy | 38 | breeders goat pygmy | 10 |
crimson pygmy barberry | 36 | barberry pygmy | 10 |
pygmy rattle snake | 32 | pygmy rattler | 9 |
pygmy boat | 31 | people pygmy | 8 |
pygmy goat for sale | 30 | pygmy goat picture | 8 |
care goat pygmy | 29 | circus love pygmy | 8 |
velcro pygmy | 28 | breeding goat pygmy | 8 |
pygmy shrew | 27 | goat pygmy raising | 8 |
pygmy kayak | 26 | chimpanzee pygmy | 8 |
marmosets pygmy | 21 | goat information pygmy | 7 |
pygmy owl | 19 | marmosets pygmy sale | 7 |
the pygmy hedgehog | 18 | congo pygmy | 7 |
pygmy sea horse | 18 | mammoth pygmy | 6 |
african pygmy | 16 | hippo pygmy | 6 |
pygmy rabbit | 15 | chameleon leaf pygmy | 5 |
mbuti pygmy | 15 | hippopotamus pygmy | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "pygmy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | pigme, xhuxh (dwarf, gnome, lilliputian, manikin, midget, pigmy, shorty). (various references) | |
Arabic | قزم (bantam, dwarf, elf, gnome, homunculus, lilliputian, manikin, midget, pigmy, runt), القزم (troll). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | незначителен (cheap, dinky, fiddling, fractional, frivolous, immaterial, imperceptible, inappreciable, inconsiderable, inessential, inglorious, insignificant, least, little, mean, minor, minute, negligible, niggling, nominal, noteless, nugatory, obscure, one horse, outside, paltry, peddling, pettifogging, petty, picayune, piddling, piffling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, rabbity, scrubby, slight, small, small time, subfusc, tenuous, third class, tiddly, trifling, trivial, two-by-four, twopenny-halfpenny, unconsidered, unimportant), нищожество (insect, nit, nobody, nonentity, nothing, null, nullity, squit, wet, whiff), нищожен (exiguous, footling, insignificant, miserable, naught, negligible, nominal, nugatory, outside, paltry, peddling, pettifogging, shabby, trifling, trivial), пигмей (pigmy), дребен човек (morsel, runt, scrub), дребен (dinky, dwarf, finical, finicking, finicky, insignificant, little, minor, niggling, paltry, peddling, petty, picayune, piddling, pimping, pokey, poky, poor, potty, puerile, puny, rabbity, sawed-off, shabby, short, small, small time, small-scale, trifling, trivial, undersized, unimportant, venial), джудже (dwarf, elf, gnome, manikin, midget). (various references) | |
Chinese | 侏' (Dwarf, Dwarfs, midget, Pygmies). (various references) | |
Czech | pygmej, trpaslík (dwarf, gnome, midget, pigmy), skřítek (elf, elves, gnome, Goblin, gremlin, hobgoblin, imp, manikin, pixie, pixy, sprite). (various references) | |
Danish | lampesokkel (goliath cap, lamp cap, miniature cap, miniature Edison screw cap, mogul base). (various references) | |
Dutch | dwerguil (pygmy owl), bietenkevertje (pigmy mangold beetle, pygmy beetle, pygmy mangle beetle), bietekevertje (pigmy mangold beetle, pygmy beetle, pygmy mangle beetle). (various references) | |
Farsi | پیگمی , میمون (Ape, Monkey, Propitious, Simian), قدکوتاه (Dwarf, Little, Puny), ادم کوتاه قد (Manikin). (various references) | |
Finnish | kääpiö (dwarf). (various references) | |
French | pygméen, pygmée, culot nain. (various references) | |
German | Pygmäe (pigmy), Zwergmensch. (various references) | |
Greek | νάνοσ (dwarf, elf, gnome, lilliputian, manikin, midget, minim, pigmy, runt, troll), πυγμαία, πυγμαίοσ (pigmy, sesquipedal), πυγμαίος. (various references) | |
Hebrew | ס (dwarf, mannikin, midget, runt). (various references) | |
Hungarian | törpe (dwarf, dwarfish, elf, elfin, gnome, lilliput, lilliputian, manikin, midget, modicum, pigmy, pint-sized, pygmean, scrogged, shorty, urchin), pigmeus (pigmy), kicsiny (exiguous), jellemileg alacsonyrendű ember (pigmy). (various references) | |
Italian | pigmeo (pigmy), zoccolo nano. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | "ギーバック輸送 (10^-12, pf, picket, pickles, picnic, pico-, picofarad, picot, pictograph, picture, piggyback system, pique, Pisa, pixar, pixel). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | "グミー . (various references) | |
Korean | "그미족 (Pygmies). (various references) | |
Manx | druaie. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ygmypay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pigmeu (negrillo, pigmy). (various references) | |
Romanian | pigmeu. (various references) | |
Russian | карлик (dwarf, dwarves, elf, hop-o'-my-thumb, manikin, midget, pigmi), незначительный (exiguous, imperceptible, importless, inconsiderable, insignificant, light, little, minor, minute, negligible, nonsignificant, of no account, of small account, outside, paltry, poky, puny, remote, slight, small time, small-time, tenuous, trivial), пигмей миниатюрный, пигмей. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pigmejski (pigmy, pygmean), pigmejac. (various references) | |
Spanish | pigmeo (pigmy, pygmaean, pygmean). (various references) | |
Swedish | dvärg (dwarf, gnome, manikin, midget, pigmy). (various references) | |
Thai | แคระ, คนแคระ. (various references) | |
Turkish | pigmelere ait (pygmean), pigme gibi (pygmean), pigme (pigmy), küçük insan (pigmy, poppet), cüce (dwarf, elf, gnome, ground-, homunculus, hop-o'-my-thumb, lilliputian, manikin, midget, nano-, pigmy, pygmean, runt, scrub, scrubby, shrimp, tom thumb). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | карликовий (dwarfish, pygmean, undersized), карлик (dwarf, elf, midget, shrimp), гном (dwarf, gnome, leprechaun), нікчема (blighter, bum, cipher, duffer, ne'er do well, nihil, nit, nobody, nonentity, nought, nullity, snake, snipe, snipper-snapper, wastrel, wet, whipper-snapper, whipster, zero), незначний (bare, exiguous, imponderable, inconsiderable, inessential, insignificant, little, minor, minute, negligible, niggling, nugacious, off, one horse, outside, petty, poor, potty, puny, slender, slight, small, trivial), пігмей (negrillo, pigmy). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vật tầm thường nhỏ bé yêu tinh (pigmy), người lùn tịt người tầm thường dốt nát (pigmy), người kém cỏi (incompetent, pigmy). (various references) | |
Welsh | corrach (dwarf), coraches (dwarf). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | Pygmaio. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "pygmy": pygmyish, pygmyism, pygmyisms. (additional references) | |
| |
"Pygmy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pigme, pimy, psygmy, pyg, pygm, pygme, pygmie, Pymm. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "pygmy" (pronounced pi"gmē) |
| 5 | p i" g m ē | pigmy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "g-m-p-y-y" | |
-2 letters: gym, gyp. | |
-3 letters: my. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-m-p-y-y" | |
+3 letters: gypsydom, gypsyism, polygamy, pygmyish, pygmyism. | |
+4 letters: gypsydoms, gypsyisms, hypergamy, mycophagy, pygmyisms. | |
+5 letters: kymography, zygomorphy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
