Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PYG'MY, n. [Fr. pygmée; It. pigmeo; L. pygmæus; Gr. μυγμαιος, from μυγμη, the fist; as big as the fist.]

A dwarf; a person not exceeding a cubit in highth. This appellation was given by the ancients to a fabulous race of beings inhabiting Thrace, who waged war with the cranes and were destroyed. – Encyc.