in folklore, a dwarf who lives under the earth and guards treasure
a garden ornament in the form of a gnome
an international banker considered to have great power over the financial sector of national economies
the gnomes of Zurich
gnomish adj
via French from modern Latin gnomus. The word gnome was apparently coined by the 16th-cent. Swiss scientist Paracelsus. He may have derived it from a hypothetical Greek form gēnomos meaning ‘earth-dweller’, but it is more probably a purely fanciful coinage