midget

Diminutive of midge (from Old English mygg, mycg (“gnat”), from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mu-, *mew-; cognate with Dutch mug (“mosquito”) and German Mücke (“midge, gnat”)), using the suffix -et, originally (1865) for a "little sand fly", only around 1869 also a "very small person".

• Rhymes: -ɪdʒɪt

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Portrait of Sebastián de Morra (c. 1645) by Diego Velázquez. The subject of the painting, a midget or dwarf, was a jester at the court of Philip IV of Spain.

midget (plural midgets)

1. (originally) A little sandfly.

   Although tiny and just two-winged, midgets can bite you till you itch all over your unprotected skin.

2. (loosely) Any small swarming insect similar to the mosquito; a midge
3. A normally proportioned person with small stature, usually defined as reaching an adult height less than 4'10". [from later 19th c.]
4. (sometimes derogatory) Any short person.
5. (attributively) A small version of something; miniature.

   the midget pony

• Used for an insect, this is a variation on midge that is incorrect but commonly used.

• (person below 4'10"): dwarf (loosely)
• (derogatory: any small person): dwarf, short-arse, shortie/shorty, tich/titch, vertically challenged person (humorous)
• (swarming insect): midge
• (miniature): dwarf

• (derogatory: any small person): giant
• (miniature): giant

• (a small person): manikin, homunculus, pygmy, lilliputian

loosely: a midge See midge

• “midget” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.