In some cases fromGermanDorf and in others from the cognateYiddishדאָרף(dorf).Doublet ofdorp andthorp.
dorf (pluraldorfs)
- Avillage in a German-speaking area.
1845, Jeptha Root Simms,History of Schoharie County and Border Wars of New York: […] , Albany: Munsell & Tanner, printers, page48:Thisdorf contained some forty dwellings.
1853, Thomas Carlyle,Fraser's Magazine, page280:So, all things considered, we were not very cheerful at first; but when the mist got higher and the day got brighter, and particularly after we left the first littledorf.
Changed fromdwarf.
dorf (pluraldorfs)
- (term of disparagement)freak.
1989, Toni Sortor,Lord, don't you get frustrated with teenagers too?, Fleming H Revell Co,→ISBN:"So? What'a you want? That's stupid! Youdorf! Yeah . . . okay. I'll see you when I get there. Get off my back, will you?" When you tell him that's no way to talk to a friend, he looks at you as though you're from another planet.
2010, Julie Genovese,Nothing Short of Joy,→ISBN, page10:He walked next to me on his knees, mimicking my gait. His face was down at my level, spit bubbling at the corner of his mouth. “I'm adorf too!”
2014, William Shatner,Tek Net,→ISBN:"We only got one goddamn Tek chip, asshole," a teenage girl was saying in a thin nasal voice. “And youdorfs promised me first turn.”
- (humorous, by extension) A dwarf.
FromMiddle High Germandorf, fromOld High Germanthorph,thorf, fromProto-Germanic*þurpą(“village”). Cognate withGermanDorf,Englishthorp.
dorf n
- village
