pixie
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɪksi/
rhymes: -ɪksi
Forms: form: pixies
form: pigsie
form: piskie
form: pisky
form: pixy
Etymology: Uncertain; 17thC, originally in the folklore of southwest England; perhaps diminutive of Swedish pysk (“fairy”); perhaps Puck + -sy; see Wikipedia.
Senses: examples: text: Then she saw pixies — dozens and dozens of pixies — dancing and singing.
ref: 2005, Dan Keding, “The Pixies’ Bed”, in Dan Keding, Amy Douglas, editors, English Folktales, page 98:
text: 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.
ref: 2005, Kathryn Reyes, Mystery Door Manor and the Dragon Realm, page 72:
text: 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.
ref: 2007, Jeremy Phillips, The Wizardon Star, page 165:
text: 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.
ref: 2010, Sandra A. Filbin, The Enchanted World: A Tooth Fairy's Tale, page 49:
topics: fantasy
human-sciences
literature
media
mysticism
mythology
philosophy
publishing
sciences
synonyms: brownie
fair
gnome
imp
sprite
qualifier: fairy tales
glosses: A playful sprite or elflike or fairy-like creature.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2006, Darnell Arnoult, Sufficient Grace, page 186:
text: 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.
ref: 2009, Nicole Baart, The Moment Between, page 1:
text: 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.
ref: 2010, Mary Jo Ignoffo, Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune, page 196:
text: Like magic, Carla transformed from the dainty pixie into a hardcore, no-nonsense businesswoman right before his eyes.
ref: 2011, L. E. Newell, Durty South Grind, page 138:
glosses: A cute, petite woman with short hair.
topics: astronomy
climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
glosses: An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a short-lasting pinpoint of light on the surface of convective domes that produces a gnome.
glosses: A butterfly of the genus Melanis.
examples: text: “Have you thought about a haircut? A pixie or a bob?”
ref: 2016, Susan Wiggs, Starlight on Willow Lake, page 114:
text: In a picture posted to Instagram on June 28, the stylish star [Lizzo] showed off her new, lighter brows and a blonde pixie that we suspect comes courtesy of a wig but can't be sure.
ref: 2021 June 29, Elizabeth Logan, “Lizzo Just Got a Blonde Pixie and Bleached Her Eyebrows”, in Glamour:
glosses: Ellipsis of pixie cut.
Derived terms: word: manic pixie dream girl
word: pixie boot
word: pixie cup
word: pixie cut
word: pixie dust
word: pixie-faced
taxonomic: Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus
word: pixie hawkfish
word: pixieish
word: pixie-led
word: pixielike
word: pixie moss
word: pixieness
word: pixie ring
word: pixie stick
word: pixie-stool
word: pixilated
word: pixillated
word: pixilation
word: pixiness