gnome

An elemental (spirit or corporeal creature associated with a classical element) associated with earth.

• He adopts the Rosycrusian fancy of Gnomes, spirits which inhabit the earth, and who by their power form the ores of metals, and all the wonders met with in the inmost recesses of the globe.
• Gnomes are perhaps the most useful of the elementals. A gnome can carry a person with it as it swims through the soil, provided it is strong enough to lift the person. The gnome cannot, however, provide air for that person[…].

One of a race of imaginary human-like beings, usually depicted as short and typically bearded males, who inhabit the inner parts of the earth and act as guardians of mines, mineral treasure, etc.; in modern fantasy literature and games, when distinguished from dwarves, gnomes are usually smaller tha

• When the trees were disposed of, the gnomes vanished again.
• There were not one but four gnomes standing at his feet. “I nearly trod on you,” Daniel said. “What are you doing here?” The gnomes just stood, looking up at him.

A person of a small stature or misshapen features, or of a strange appearance.derogatoryinformal

The mountain pygmy owl, Glaucidium gnoma, a small owl of the western United States.

A small statue of a dwarf-like character, often bearded, placed in a garden.

• There were ornamental ponds and shrubs clipped into animal shapes, painted concrete gnomes sitting on mushrooms, pink flamingos standing on one leg[.]

An upper atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a compact blue starter.

A banker, especially a secretive international one.derogatoryoften

• the gnomes of Zurich
• 1985, Fodor's, Fodor's ... London, Fodor's For this is a creation of the City, of the country's financial heart, and of the gnomes of London who have financed it and supported it entirely on their own.

A brief reflection or maxim; a pithy saying.

• 1996, Giambattista Vico, Giorgio A. Pinton, Arthur W. Shippee (translators), The Art of Rhetoric, [1711-1741, Giambattista Vico, Institutiones Oratoriae], page 125, The Greeks in their tongue call this second type of maxim noema. The gnome