manikin:
(also spelled ‘mannikin’ or in very old usage: ‘manakin’; plural: ‘manikins‘)
a woman looking at a manikin (a short man)
a very short man;
a dwarf; a pygmy;
a child,
a manikin, the shortest man, in relation to the long legs of the tallest woman
The usage of manikin is mostly found in the old literary works… books written in the past by intellectual people.
According to some ancient stories, Egyptian men and women liked the manikins and kept wit them because they looked curious in their very short statures.
There are some scientists and anthropologists who believe that ‘manikins’ were actually a separate race of people, unlike dwarfs but like pygmies, who were very gentle and had a lot of knowledge in matters relating to nature.
As ‘manikin’ is more often used to refer to an artificial human body used in medical and fashion sectors, children are no more called manikins as was the usual practice in the past.
a shopper looking at two mannequins in a shop window
Though not a hard and fast rule, some authorities use ‘manikin’ to refer to ‘models’ that are used in medical training and ‘mannequin’ to refer to ‘models’ used by garment showrooms.
For an informative article on what a mannequin is, please click here and for a religious article in which we see the other spelling ‘manikin’ being used for a mannequin, please click here.
