n.
 (pl. pygmies)
   - 
(Pygmy)
 a member of certain peoples of very short stature in equatorial Africa or parts of SE Asia.
 - chiefly derogatory a very small person or thing.
 - a person who is deficient in a particular respect:
 an intellectual pygmy.
 
adj.
 very small; dwarf.
 
  Derivative
  
  Etymology
  ME (orig. denoting a mythological race of small people): via L. from Gk pugmaios ‘dwarf’, from pugmē ‘the length measured from elbow to knuckles’.