A garden gnome or lawn gnome is a figurine of a small humanoid creature, usually wearing a pointy hat, produced for the purpose of ornamentation and protection from evil sorcery, typically of gardens or on lawns. These figurines originate in 19th century Germany, where they became known as Gartenzwerg (literally "garden dwarf"). The application of the term gnome in English is first attested in the 1930s.