A dead distinction, if there ever was one?

[Wilson Gray]

I've long noticed that the PC term is "little people." However, as a
child, I was taught that there are two kinds of abnormally-short
people: well-proportioned ones known as "midgets" and mal-proportioned
ones known as "dwarves" / "dwarfs."

Was this ever true for sE speakers? Little people seen on TV, all of
whom appear to be, by the above-mentioned definition, dwarves, say
that they don't like to be known as "midgets," preferring to be
referred to as "dwarves," given a choice restricted to those two terms
only. But "little people" is the correct term.

"Midget," to the extent that it's used, seems to be merely another
term for "dwarf."

-Wilson
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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