hop-o'-my-thumb

From the idea that such a person could hop over somebody's thumb; in common use in the 16th century.

hop-o'-my-thumb (plural hop-o'-my-thumbs)

1. (colloquial, dated) A very diminutive person; by extension, any very diminutive creature.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

   • 1830, Uncredited (John Poole), The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Part 1: Original Papers, page 81,

     As to changing them for a pack of your little hop-o'-my-thumbs, no bigger than the one you lent me t'other night — !^[sic] suppose I should ask you to let me have the mare you rode to cover o'Thursday — and a clever mare she is, […] .

   • 1837, Opening of the Theatre-Royal, Little Pedlington, in Colburn's New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 422,

     "In the first place,” answered Hobbleday, somewhat tartly, “I suppose our Daubson, who painted the famous grenadier in Yawkins's skittle-ground, knew very well what he was about: he wasn't going to paint hop-o'-my-thumbs that might be mistaken for drummer-boys. […] "

   • 1995, Joan Aiken, Cold Shoulder Road, 2010, unnumbered page,

     " […] And who are these little hop-o'-my-thumbs?” as Arun and Is jumped down from the cart.

Notably used (from 1804) to translate the title of the French fairy tale Le Petit Poucet.

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