From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Gnome \Gnome\, noun [F. gnome, prob. fr. Gr. gnw'mon one that knows, a guardian, i. e., of the treasures in the inner parts of the earth, or fr. ? intelligence, both fr. gnw^nai, gignw^skein, to know. See {Know}.]
1. An imaginary being, supposed by the Rosicrucians to inhabit the inner parts of the earth, and to be the guardian of mines, quarries, etc.
2. A dwarf; a goblin; a person of small stature or misshapen features, or of strange appearance.
3. (Zo["o]l.) A small owl ({Glaucidium gnoma}) of the Western United States.
4. [Gr. ?.] A brief reflection or maxim. --Peacham.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a legendary creature resembling a tiny old man; lives in the depths of the earth and guards buried treasure [syn: {dwarf}]
2: a short pithy saying expressing a general truth
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
93 Moby Thesaurus words for "gnome": Ariel, Befind, Corrigan, Finnbeara, Lilliputian, Mab, Oberon, Titania, Tom Thumb, adage, ana, analects, aphorism, apothegm, axiom, banshee, brocard, brownie, byword, catchword, cluricaune, collected sayings, current saying, dictate, dictum, distich, dwarf, elemental, elemental spirit, elf, epigram, expression, fairy, fairy queen, fay, goblin, golden saying, gremlin, hob, homunculus, imp, kobold, leprechaun, manikin, maxim, midge, midget, moral, mot, motto, oracle, ouphe, peewee, peri, phrase, pip-squeak, pithy saying, pixie, pooka, precept, prescript, proverb, proverbial saying, proverbs, puca, pwca, pygmy, rule, runt, salamander, saw, saying, sentence, sententious expression, shrimp, sloka, sprite, stock saying, sutra, sylph, sylphid, teaching, text, truism, undine, verse, wart, wisdom, wisdom literature, wise saying, witticism, word, words of wisdom
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
GNOME {GNU Network Object Model Environment}
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
GNOME, noun In North-European mythology, a dwarfish imp inhabiting the interior parts of the earth and having special custody of mineral treasures. Bjorsen, who died in 1765, says gnomes were common enough in the southern parts of Sweden in his boyhood, and he frequently saw them scampering on the hills in the evening twilight. Ludwig Binkerhoof saw three as recently as 1792, in the Black Forest, and Sneddeker avers that in 1803 they drove a party of miners out of a Silesian mine. Basing our computations upon data supplied by these statements, we find that the gnomes were probably extinct as early as 1764.
From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:
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