dwarf

Etymology

From Middle English dwergh, dwerw, dwerf, from Old English 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 Old English 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 Old English burg giving burgh, borough, burrow, bury.

noun

1. (mythology) 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.
2. (now sometimes offensive) A person of short stature, often one whose limbs are disproportionately small in relation to the body as compared with typical adults, usually as the result of a genetic condition.
3. An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.
   dwarf tree
   dwarf honeysuckle
4. (astronomy) A dwarf star.

adj

1. (especially in botany) Miniature.
   The specimen is a very dwarf form of the plant.
   It is possible to grow the plants as dwarf as one desires.

verb

1. (transitive) To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).
2. (transitive) To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny.
   The newly-built skyscraper dwarfs all older buildings in the downtown skyline.
   The train bursts from Rusher Cutting Tunnel with explosive violence, the engine's exhaust soaring high into the air, but dwarfed by the mighty limestone cliffs on either side. 1960 April, J. P. Wilson, E. N. C. Haywood, “The route through the Peak - Derby to Manchester: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 225
   In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter. 2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 184
3. (transitive) To make appear insignificant.
   Bach dwarfs all other composers.
4. (intransitive) To become (much) smaller.
5. To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.
   Even the most common moral ideas and affections […] would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background. 1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry