pixie

See also: Pixie and píxié

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Uncertain; 17thC, originally in the folklore of southwest England; perhaps diminutive of Swedish pysk (“fairy”);[1] perhaps Puck + -sy;[2] see Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

Noun

pixie (plural pixies)

  1. (mythology, fantasy literature, fairy tales) A playful sprite or elflike or fairy-like creature.
    Synonyms: brownie, fair, gnome, imp, sprite
    • 2005, Dan Keding, “The Pixies’ Bed”, in Dan Keding, Amy Douglas, editors, English Folktales, page 98:
      Then she saw pixies — dozens and dozens of pixies — dancing and singing.
    • 2005, Kathryn Reyes, Mystery Door Manor and the Dragon Realm, page 72:
      When she looked around, Mary saw four pixies flying toward her. She had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. Then the pixies turned around and attacked again.
    • 2007, Jeremy Phillips, The Wizardon Star, page 165:
      The servant that had raised him, an elderly pixie called Rolog, had died. On his deathbed he had called the young Captain to his side. Seeing the pixie dying had had no effect on him.
    • 2010, Sandra A. Filbin, The Enchanted World: A Tooth Fairy's Tale, page 49:
      Tiffy froze as the two pixies looked directly into each other's eyes.
      Then Tiffy raised her hand and said, “Hi, I'm Tiffy the Tooth Fairy.” Even though the other pixie lifted her hand too, she didn't answer.
  2. (slang) A cute, petite woman with short hair.
    • 2006, Darnell Arnoult, Sufficient Grace, page 186:
      Then a pixie appears in the visitor window, round face, big brown eyes framed in thick liner, a tiny turned-up nose, red lips, inch-long blue-black hair so popular with the avant-garde.
    • 2009, Nicole Baart, The Moment Between, page 1:
      Petite and narrow-waisted, with a pixie flip of hair the exact color of coffee beans, Abigail could easily pass for sixteen in a pair of ripped jeans and an Abercrombie T-shirt.
    • 2010, Mary Jo Ignoffo, Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune, page 196:
      Petite in the extreme, not even reaching five feet tall, Winchester at her most robust had approached one hundred pounds. No longer the bright-eyed, sophisticated pixie that Isaiah Taber had photographed so many years earlier, Winchester showed a different picture altogether as she lay dying, her fingers and toes knotted and knurled from years of destruction by the painful arthritis.
    • 2011, L. E. Newell, Durty South Grind, page 138:
      Like magic, Carla transformed from the dainty pixie into a hardcore, no-nonsense businesswoman right before his eyes.
  3. (astronomy, meteorology) An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a short-lasting pinpoint of light on the surface of convective domes that produces a gnome.
  4. A butterfly of the genus Melanis.
  5. Short for pixie cut.
    • 2016, Susan Wiggs, Starlight on Willow Lake, page 114:
      “Have you thought about a haircut? A pixie or a bob?”

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary, Vol. IV, 1903.
  2. William Dwight Whitney, The Century Dictionary, 1895.

Further reading

Dongxiang

Alternative forms
  • pijie

Etymology

From Proto-Mongolic *büse. Compare Mongolian бүс (büs).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /pʰiˈɕjə/

Noun

pixie

  1. belt
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