gnome
n. countablen. a small, imaginary creature that looks like a tiny old man and lives underground. You often see stone versions of them as decorations in people's gardens.
n. a legendary creature of diminutive stature, typically depicted as a bearded man wearing a pointed hat. In modern contexts, refers to ornamental garden statues or, metaphorically, to influential international financiers.
She placed a colorful gnome next to the flowerbed.
The children spent the afternoon searching the woods for a hidden gnome they believed lived under the oak tree.
While the term originated in Renaissance alchemy to describe earth elementals, the contemporary image of the gnome is largely derived from nineteenth-century German folklore and mass-produced garden ornaments.
From French gnome (“gnome”), from New Latin gnomus, used by Paracelsus as a synonym for pygmaeus (“pygmy”).
From Ancient Greek γνώμη (gnṓmē, “thought, opinion”), from the base of γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “to know”).
Commonly used in the compound 'garden gnome'.