Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A cant word for anything petty or small. It is used by Drayton as the name of a fairy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rare A small or petty person, creature or object, especially a
fairy ,dwarf ,imp , orelf . - noun rare A contemptible or stupid person or creature.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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I pursued the sad inquiry: 'A noodle, a pigwidgeon, a ninnyhammer, a bubble on the wave, a leaf in the wind, Madame! '
More Trivia Logan Pearsall Smith 1907
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But in Malvina, side by side with much that is commendable, there appears to have existed a most reprehensible spirit of mischief, displaying itself in pranks that, excusable, or at all events understandable, in, say, a pixy or a pigwidgeon, strike one as altogether unworthy of a well-principled
The Fawn Gloves 1893
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"Well, when we discharge pigwidgeon, your friend with the bell shape -- Jack Sheep yer -- all you got to do, Levin, is to send the hard cole to your mother by him, sayin ',' Bless you, marm; my wages will excoos my face! '"
The Entailed Hat Or, Patty Cannon's Times George Alfred Townsend 1877
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I’m proud of you for not mentioning The Bridgewater Treatises, particularly Babbage’s Fragment, which seems to come closest of them to Dembski’s blather. pigwidgeon
sionnach commented on the word pigwidgeon
Noun. (Written also pigwidgin and pigwiggen.) A cant word for anything petty or small. It is used by Drayton as the name of a fairy.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Also, I believe, a character in the Harry Potter books, possibly an owl, probably belong to a Weaseley boy.
(Too lazy to look it up)
July 16, 2008
Gammerstang commented on the word pigwidgeon
(noun) - (1) A kind of cant word for anything petty or small. --Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, 1755 (2) A fairy. --Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon of the English Language, c. 1850 (3) Of obscure origin and meaning. Some have identified it with the name of a fairy knight favoured by Queen Mab, the wife of Oberon. --Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1909
January 27, 2018