petty
See also: Petty
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English pety, from Old French peti, petit. Doublet of petit. The disparaging meaning developed over the 16th century.
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /ˈpɛti/
- Homophone: Petty
- (General American) IPA(key): [ˈpʰɛɾi]
- Homophones: Petty, pedi
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛti
AdjectiveEdit
petty (comparative pettier or more petty, superlative pettiest or most petty)
- (obsolete except in set phrases) Little, small, secondary in rank or importance.
- 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes:
- Like a petty god I walked about, admired of all.
- Insignificant, trifling, or inconsiderable.
- a petty fault
- 2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic[1], Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, ISSN 0027-9358, OCLC 1049714034, archived from the original on 14 June 2018:
- Later today in Finsbury Park, the cameras would spend hours panning across 35,000 festivalgoers in search of pickpockets, drunken brawlers, and other assorted agents of petty mischief.
- Narrow-minded, small-minded.
- Such literature is not for those, who are too docile and petty for their own good.
- Begrudging in nature, especially over insignificant matters.
- That corporation is only slightly pettier than they are greedy, and they are overdue to reap the consequences.
SynonymsEdit
- (little, unimportant): See Thesaurus:insignificant
- (begrudging): grudgeful, grudging
AntonymsEdit
- (little): See Thesaurus:big
- (begrudging): See Thesaurus:kindly
- (small-minded): broad-minded
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from petty
TranslationsEdit
little, trifling, or inconsiderable, as a petty fault
small-minded
begrudging
See alsoEdit
NounEdit
petty (plural petties)
- (usually in the plural, obsolete) A little schoolboy, either in grade or size.
- (historical) A class or school for young schoolboys.
- (dialect, euphemistic) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
SynonymsEdit
- (school for young schoolboys): ABC, petty school
- (class for young schoolboys): petty form
- (outhouse): See Thesaurus:outhouse
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
- "petty, adj. and n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary (2005), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- “petty”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
- petty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- petty in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
HungarianEdit
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
petty (plural pettyek)
Derived termsEdit
(Expressions):
- hétpettyes katicabogár (“seven-spot[ted] ladybird/ladybug”)
DeclensionEdit
Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | petty | pettyek |
accusative | pettyet | pettyeket |
dative | pettynek | pettyeknek |
instrumental | pettyel | pettyekkel |
causal-final | pettyért | pettyekért |
translative | pettyé | pettyekké |
terminative | pettyig | pettyekig |
essive-formal | pettyként | pettyekként |
essive-modal | — | — |
inessive | pettyben | pettyekben |
superessive | pettyen | pettyeken |
adessive | pettynél | pettyeknél |
illative | pettybe | pettyekbe |
sublative | pettyre | pettyekre |
allative | pettyhez | pettyekhez |
elative | pettyből | pettyekből |
delative | pettyről | pettyekről |
ablative | pettytől | pettyektől |
non-attributive possessive - singular |
pettyé | pettyeké |
non-attributive possessive - plural |
pettyéi | pettyekéi |
Possessive forms of petty | ||
---|---|---|
possessor | single possession | multiple possessions |
1st person sing. | pettyem | pettyeim |
2nd person sing. | pettyed | pettyeid |
3rd person sing. | pettye | pettyei |
1st person plural | pettyünk | pettyeink |
2nd person plural | pettyetek | pettyeitek |
3rd person plural | pettyük | pettyeik |
Further readingEdit
- petty in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962.