dwarfdomn.
/ˈdwɔːfdəm/, U.S. /ˈd(w)ɔrfdəm/ 1. In folklore, mythology, fantasy fiction, etc.: the realm, community, or kingdom of the dwarves (dwarf n. 3).
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1827 T. Carlyle tr. J. W. von Goethe Wilhelm Meister's Trav. in German Romance IV. 276 On this occurrence, unexampled in the annals of Dwarfdom [Ger. des Zwergenreichs], the Sages were assembled.
1881 Little Wide-awake 88/2 [If you stay here to reign over the blue-nosed dwarfs] you would..become more and more taken up with the affairs of dwarfdom.
1977 N. Hancock Circle of Light: Calix Stay 144 As if he were sitting..in front of his own home hearth.., listening with eager attention as the history of Dwarfdom was recited.
2008 C. Paolini Brisingr 422 I cannot afford to offend you or your—I mean, our clan or the rest of dwarfdom.
2. The quality or condition of being (relatively) inferior, unimportant, ineffectual, insignificant or deficient in a particular respect. Now somewhat rare.Probably a figurative use of sense 3, although it is apparently attested earlier.
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1830 S. T. Coleridge On Constit. Church & State 111 With its dwarfdom exaggerated by the contrast.
1878 Canad. Jrnl. Med. Sci. Apr. 135/2 These days of weak-kneed subserviency and moral dwarfdom.
1943 Orate Fratres 5 Sept. 443 All others, it is wrongly presumed, may rest content in the dwarfdom of spiritual mediocrity.
1991 Rev. Social Econ. 49 250 The existence of ethical dwarfdom side by side with nuclear gianthood does not simply augur ill for the future of mankind. It spells its doom.
3. The condition or fact of being smaller or shorter than is expected, esp. as a result of a genetic or developmental process; dwarfism. Also: individuals with dwarfism considered collectively.
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1852 Morning Post 23 Sept. 3/2 His sisters are said to approach to dwarfdom.
1887 Detroit Tribune in St. Louis (Missouri) Daily Globe-Democrat 30 Mar. 4/7 [With reference to the practice of misrepresenting children as adult performers in circuses, etc.] This has passed away, and there is no fraud about the present representatives of dwarfdom.
1902 Medico-chirurg. Trans. 85 341 Mr. Hutchinson has described a case of apparent ateliotic dwarfdom in a young man.
1985 S. W. Mosher Journey to Forbidden China i. 18 Miniature forests of tiny mulberry trees, consigned to arboreal dwarfdom by the various crops of silkworms that fed upon their leaves.
2003 Antioch Rev. 61 612 In the tenth grade, Chicky [sc. an achondroplastic dwarf] wrote an essay for school about the history of dwarfdom.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2022).
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