dwarf

Meanings

Noun

• Any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian and other Germanic) folklore, usually depicted as having some sort of supernatural powers and being skilled in crafting and metalworking, often as short with long beards, and sometimes as clashing with elves.
• A person of short stature, often one whose limbs are disproportionately small in relation to the body as compared with normal adults, usually as the result of a genetic condition.
• An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.
• A star of relatively small size.

Adjective

• Miniature.

Verb

• To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).
• To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny.
• To make appear insignificant.
• To become (much) smaller.
• To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.

Origin

• From Middle English dwerf, dwergh, dwerw, dwerȝ, from Old English dweorh, dweorg, from Proto-West Germanic *dwerg, from Proto-Germanic *dwergaz.
• Cognate with Scots dwerch; Old High German twerc (German Zwerg); Old Norse dvergr (Swedish dvärg); Old Frisian dwirg (West Frisian dwerch); Middle Low German dwerch, dwarch, twerg (German Low German Dwarg, Dwarch); Middle Dutch dwerch, dworch (Dutch dwerg).
• The Modern English noun has undergone complex phonetic changes. The form dwarf is the regular continuation of dweorg, but the plural dweorgas would have given rise to dwarrows and the oblique stem dweorge- would have led to dwery. These forms are sometimes found as the nominative singular in Middle English texts and in English dialects. A parallel case is that of burg giving burgh, borough, burrow, bury.