midget

A midget is a short person with relatively average bodily proportions in comparison with other human beings. The term is often improperly used to describe a person with the medical condition dwarfism. The two terms are often used synonymously because both terms originate as words defining small people. However, "midget" is regarded as offensive to those with dwarfism by both the Restricted Growth Association (UK based support network for people of profound short-stature) and the Little People of America (the American support network), along with many other nationally based groups, advocating the rights of individuals with disabilities and dwarfing conditions.

The term "midget" was coined in 1865 to describe an extremely short person with body proportions similar to those of a normal-sized persons.^[1] P. T. Barnum indirectly helped popularize the term midget when he began featuring General Tom Thumb in his circus. "Dwarf" originally denoted people with disproportionately short limbs. "Midget" however became linked to referencing short people put on display for public ridicule and sport, whereas the terms "dwarf" or "dwarfism" have a more medical base.

Like many other older terms, midget has become part of popular language, although it is sometimes used in a derogatory sense.^[2] When applied to a person who is very short, midget is an example of the euphemism treadmill.^[3] Actor Hervé Villechaize insisted on being called a "midget" as opposed to a "little person", which irritated some dwarf activists of the time.

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 1961) defines midget in the noun form as "a very diminutive person", and in the adjective form as "like a midget in size; very diminutive", hence its usage as a synonym for "miniature", as with cars.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the term midget comes from midge, a sand fly, and the diminutive suffix -et.^[4]

References

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