dwarfとは意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (General American) enPR: dwôrf, IPA^(key): /dwɔɹf/
• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /dwɔːf/
• 韻: -ɔː(ɹ)f

Nain assis (Seated Dwarf, 19th century), a painting in the style of Spanish artist Francisco Goya

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the seven dwarfs sing "Heigh-Ho", while walking on a log.

名詞

dwarf (複数形 dwarfs または dwarves)

1. (mythology) Any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian かつ 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 often offensive) 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.

   Synonyms: midget, pygmy (imprecise)

   Antonyms: ettin, giant

3. An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.

   Synonym: runt

   dwarf tree

   dwarf honeysuckle

4. (astronomy) A star of relatively small size.

使用する際の注意点

At first, dwarfs was the common plural in English. After J. R. R. Tolkien used dwarves in his works, that form became the standard for the plural of the mythological beings. For a non-mythological dwarf (people with dwarfism, small plants, animals, planets, stars, etc.), dwarfs has remained the preferred plural form. The use of dwarf to describe people with dwarfism is currently considered to be offensive by some.

派生語

形容詞

dwarf (comparative dwarfer, superlative dwarfest)

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.

動詞

dwarf (三人称単数 現在形 dwarfs, 現在分詞 dwarfing, 過去形および過去分詞形 dwarfed)

1. (transitive) To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).

   Synonyms: miniaturize, shrink

2. (transitive) To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny.

   The newly-built skyscraper dwarfs all older buildings in the downtown skyline.

   • 1960 April, J. P. Wilson and E. N. C. Haywood, “The route through the Peak - Derby to Manchester: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 225:

     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.

   • 2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 184:

     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.

3. (transitive) To make appear insignificant.

   Synonyms: eclipse, overshadow, outshadow, outshine, outdo, put to shame, upstage, surpass, outmatch, outstrip

   Bach dwarfs all other composers.

4. (intransitive) To become (much) smaller.

   Synonym: shrink

5. To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.
   • 1710 July 3 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison, “THURSDAY, June 22, 1710”, in The Spectator, number 98; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, OCLC 191120697:

     At present the whole sex is in a manner dwarfed and shrunk - into a race of beauties that seems almost another species

   • 1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry

     Even the most common moral ideas and affections […] would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background.