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The term midget refers to something which is smaller than usual but well-proportioned.
In the 19th century, midget was a medical term referring to an extremely short but normally proportioned person (e.g., with growth hormone deficiency), 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 extremely short, midget is now considered derogatory. The non-offensive term Little person has since replaced midget. See also Lilliput.
Midget is a general term, however, and is also used, for example, to denote a class of small objects, such as a class of very small sailboats or racing cars. It also refers to certain automobile models produced by MG and Daihatsu.
Midget also refers to a sort of smiley or emoticon. An emoticon is a set of characters that are intended to convey an emotion when viewed at a 90° counterclockwise (rarely, clockwise) angle; that is, one must tilt ones head to the left to view the emoticon right-side-up. A midget emoticon is an emoticon without the nose, and so without the hyphen or caret. Examples include:
:) :( :D :P<tt>
Note that as of 2004, the instant messenging software programs AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ do not support midget emoticons. The instant messenger Yahoo! Messenger does, as does MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger.
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