Editing Gnome (section)

==Etymology==
The word comes from [[Renaissance Latin]] {{lang|la|gnomus, gnomos}},{{sfnp|Paracelsus|1658|loc='''II''': 394}} (pl. {{lang|la|gnomi}}{{Refn|{{sfnp|Paracelsus|1658|loc='''II''': 391}} {{=}} loc. cit. apud OED.<ref name="OED"/>}}) which first appears in ''[[A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on the Other Spirits]]'' by [[Paracelsus]], published posthumously in [[Nysa, Poland|Nysa]] in 1566.{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|And again in the Johannes Huser edition of 1589–1591 from an autograph by Paracelsus.}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Ex Libro de Nymphis, Sylvanis, Pygmaeis, Salamandris et Gigantibus, etc |author=Paracelsus |publisher=Ioannes Cruciger |location=[[Nysa, Poland|Nissae Silesiorum]] |date=1566 |author-link=Paracelsus }}</ref><ref>[[Manly P. Hall|Hall, Manly P.]] (1997, 1964). ''Paracelsus: His Mystical and Medical Philosophy''. [[Philosophical Research Society]]. pp. 53, 69–72, 74, 77–78. {{ISBN|0-89314-808-3}}.</ref>

The term may be an original invention of Paracelsus, possibly deriving the term from Latin {{lang|la|*gēnomos}}, itself representing a Greek {{lang|grc|*γηνόμος}}, approximated by "{{lang|la|*gē-nomos}}", literally "earth-dweller". This is characterized by the [[Oxford English Dictionary]] (OED) as a case of "blunder",<ref name="OED"/> presumably referring to the omission of the ''ē'' to arrive at ''gnomus''. However, this conjectural derivation is not substantiated by any known prior attestation in literature,{{efn|The asterisk(*) at the beginnings of the presumed Latin or Greek words indicates [[linguistic reconstruction]].}} and one commentator suggests the truth will never be known, short of a discovery of correspondence from the author.{{efn|A rhetorical comparison is made to [[Murray Gell-Mann]] who did write to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' regarding the word origin of "[[quark]]".}}<ref name="liberman2009"/>