Pixie

How to spell pixie

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pixie

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pixie mean?

1. nounA small, mischievous fairy-like creature of folklore, often depicted with pointed ears and a playful nature.
2. nounA short, cropped hairstyle, usually for women, named for its neat and elfin look.

Pixie in a sentence

• The children's book featured a tiny pixie who hid garden keys.

• She asked the stylist for a short pixie before the summer holiday.

• Local legend claims a pixie leads travellers astray on the moor.

• The actress debuted a sleek pixie on the red carpet.

Where does pixie come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

Pixie is one of those genuinely murky English words whose roots are hard to pin down with confidence. It surfaces in the seventeenth century in the dialects of the West Country, especially Devon and Cornwall, where forms like 'pixy' and 'pisky' described small, mischievous supernatural beings of local folklore. Some scholars have suggested a link to Swedish dialect 'pyske', meaning a small fairy or little creature, which would point to a Scandinavian thread, but the connection is far from proven. The diminutive ending '-ie', the same affectionate suffix found in words like 'doggie' and 'birdie', helped fix the playful, small-scale feel of the word. Because the early spelling wavered between 'pixy' and 'pixie', modern writers still hesitate over whether the word ends in '-y' or '-ie', and the '-ie' form is now the settled standard.

How the word is built

• pix (sprite/fairy stem, of obscure origin)
• -ie (diminutive suffix)