(old).—A dwarf; a thumbling (Fr. petit poucet); a HOP-O’-MY-THUMB (q.v.).—B. E. and GROSE.
1592. NASHE, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell. [For this and innumerable contemporary references see HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, II. 167.]
1621. JOHNSON, Tom Thumb, Introduction. Nor shall my story be made of Tom of Bethlem, Tom Lincoln, or Tom a Lin, the devil’s bastard … but of an older Tom, a Tom of more antiquity … I mean little Tom of Wales, no bigger than a miller’s thumb, and therefore, for his small stature, surnamed TOM THUMB.
1630. Life and Death of TOM THUMB [ROBERTS, Ballads, 82]. In Arthur’s court TOM THUMB did live.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Works, ii. 23. Thou pigmy in sin, thou TOM THUMB in iniquity.
1733. FIELDING, TOM THUMB the Great [Title].
1734. HEARNE, Reliquiæ, iii. 138, 22 May. What makes me think TOM THUMB is founded upon history, is the method of those times of turning true history into little pretty stories.
