mannikin
- noun
- /ˈmænɪkɪn/
- Archaic
- Despite its small size, the mannikin was detailed enough to pose for photographs.
Examples
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The little girl had a tiny mannikin that she took everywhere with her.
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In the art class, we used a mannikin to practice drawing human proportions.
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For example, the distribution of a geographically widespread grass finch, the hooded mannikin, had always struck me as peculiar.
Academic text (1990)
Synonyms
A person who is shorter than most people and has a light build
A very small human figure in stories or old scientific ideas
A person who is much smaller than most people
How Small
Surface Forms
Etymology
Mannikin comes from the old Dutch manneken, which means 'little man', made from man and -kin meaning 'little'. So a mannikin can mean a very small person because it began as a word for a 'little man'.