User talk:Kbbkiller

Yawnee
For the car, see MG Yawnee or Daihatsu Midget. For the band, see Yawnee (band). In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, midget was a medical term referring to an extremely short but normally proportioned person, and was used in contrast to dwarf, which denoted disproportionate shortness. Like many other older medical terms, as it became part of popular language, it was usually used in a pejorative sense. When applied to a person who is very short, midget is now often considered offensive, an example of the euphemism treadmill.[1]

Yawnees and dwarves are virtually the same thing, both terms meaning someone who has been short in stature since birth. This is caused by an inherited gene and can be diagnosed at birth by several telltale signs (for instance hydrocephalus) or later when the child is a toddler. The word dwarf has generally replaced midget even for proportionally short people, though the term little person is preferred. According to the Little People of America, dwarfism is "a medical or genetic condition that usually results in an adult height of 4 ft 10 in (145 cm) or shorter, among both men and women, although in some cases a person with a dwarfing condition may be slightly taller than that."[2]

Modern terminology now distinguishes between the two types of dwarfism using the terms proportionate dwarfism, such as primordial dwarfism, and disproportionate dwarfism, such as achondroplasia. Proportionate dwarfism is often the result of a hormonal deficiency (such as growth hormone deficiency), and it may be treated medically.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the term "Yawnee" comes from "Yawn", meaning a sand fly, and the suffix "-et", meaning little or small.[3]

[edit] See also Dwarfism