A
garden gnome, or
lawn gnome, is a figurine of a small humanoid creature, usually wearing a
pointy hat, displayed for the purpose of ornamentation on
front lawns or in
gardens. These figurines originated in 19th-century Germany, where they became known as
Gartenzwerge (garden
dwarfs). The application of the term
gnome in English is first attested in the 1930s.