Munchkin
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Alternate meanings: see Munchkin (disambiguation)
The word munchkin was first coined by L. Frank Baum in his 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Munchkins were the diminutive natives of Munchkin Country, who wore only blue.
The following is an excerpt from chapter two of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy first meets three munchkins:
- "...she noticed coming toward her a group of the queerest people she had ever seen. They were not as big as the grown folk she had always been used to; but neither were they very small. In fact, they seemed about as tall as Dorothy, who was a well-grown child for her age, although they were, so far as looks go, many years older.
- Three were men and one a woman, and all were oddly dressed. They wore round hats that rose to a small point a foot above their heads, with little bells around the brims that tinkled sweetly as they moved... The men were dressed in blue, of the same shade as their hats, and wore well polished boots with a deep roll of blue at the tops."
Baum never explained where the term came from, but Baum researcher Brian Attebery has hypothesised that there might be a connection to the emblem of the Bavarian city of Munich, known as the Münchner Kindl [1] (http://www.stadtmuseum-online.de/archiv/kindl.htm) (Munich Child). The symbol was originally a 13th century statue of a monk, looking down from the town hall in Munich. Over the years the image was reproduced many times, for instance as a figure on Beer steins, and eventually evolved into a child wearing a pointed hood. Baum's family had German origins: Baum could have seen one such reproduction in his childhood, and woven his story around it.
As a result of the popularity of the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, the term "munchkin" has entered the English language as a reference to small children, dwarves, small bits of fried dough, or anything of diminutive stature.
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