petty

See also: Petty

English

Etymology

From Middle English pety, from Old French peti, petit. Doublet of petit. The disparaging meaning developed over the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛti/
• Homophone: Petty
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰɛɾi]
  • Homophones: Petty, pedi

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛti

Adjective

petty (comparative pettier or more petty, superlative pettiest or most petty)

1. having little or no importance

   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.

2. marked by or reflective of undesirably limited interests, sympathies, or views; preoccupied with subjects having little or no importance

   Such literature may well be anathema to those, who are too docile and petty for their own good.

   1. selfish
   2. limited in scope of consideration, not mindful of the big picture
   3. sectarian, partisan
3. 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.

4. (obsolete except in set phrases) Little, small, secondary in rank or importance.

   petty officer, petty cash

   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes:

     Like a petty god I walked about, admired of all.

Synonyms

• (little, unimportant): See Thesaurus:insignificant
• (begrudging): grudgeful, grudging

Antonyms

• (little): See Thesaurus:big
• (begrudging): See Thesaurus:kindly
• (small-minded): broad-minded

Derived terms

Terms derived from petty

• pettiness
• petty apartheid
• petty cash
• petty crime
• petty king
• petty larceny
• petty officer
• petty theft

Translations

little, trifling, or inconsiderable, as a petty fault

• Armenian: մանր (hy) (manr)
• Bulgarian: дребен (dreben), незначителен (bg) (neznačitelen)
• Czech: malicherný (cs) m, drobný (cs) m
• Danish: ubetydelig
• Dutch: onbeduidend (nl)
• French: petit (fr), insignifiant (fr)
• German: klein (de), gering (de), unbedeutend (de), unwichtig (de), geringfügig (de), klein (de)
• Greek: μικρός (el) m (mikrós), ασήμαντος (el) m (asímantos), μηδαμινός (el) m (midaminós)
• Hungarian: bagatell (hu), jelentéktelen (hu), piti (hu)
• Italian: piccolo (it)
• Japanese: 小さい (ja) (chīsai), 微小な (ja) (bishō na), (of a person) 凡庸な (ja) (bon'yō na), 狭量 (ja) (kyōryō)

• Latin: pusillus, minutus (la)
• Macedonian: ситен m (siten), мал m (mal)
• Norwegian: ubetydelig
• Polish: nieistotny (pl) m, drobny (pl) m, błahy (pl) m
• Portuguese: pequeno (pt), insignificante (pt), fútil (pt)
• Romanian: mărunt (ro)
• Russian: пустячный (ru) (pustjačnyj), ме́лкий (ru) (mélkij)
• Spanish: pequeño (es), insignificante (es), baladí (es), nimio (es), menor (es), de pitiminí
• Swedish: småaktig (sv), liten (sv), obetydlig (sv)
• Ukrainian: мали́й (uk) (malýj), дріб'язко́вий (dribʺjazkóvyj)
• Welsh: mân (cy), pitw (cy)

small-minded

• Bulgarian: дребнав (bg) (drebnav)
• French: mesquin (fr)
• German: kleinlich (de)

• Italian: meschino (it) m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: smålig (no)

• Polish: małostkowy (pl) m
• Spanish: meticuloso (es), detallista (es), mezquino (es), nimio (es)

begrudging

• Finnish: pikkumainen (fi)
• German: gehässig (de)
• Japanese: 怨めしい (urameshii)

• Spanish: malvado (es)

See also

• quibble

Noun

petty (plural petties)

1. (usually in the plural, obsolete) A little schoolboy, either in grade or size.
2. (historical) A class or school for young schoolboys.
3. (dialect, euphemistic) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.

Synonyms

• (school for young schoolboys): ABC, petty school
• (class for young schoolboys): petty form
• (outhouse): See Thesaurus:outhouse

See also

• Petty France

References

• "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.

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Hungarian

Alternative forms

• pötty

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛcː]
• Hyphenation: petty
• Rhymes: -ɛcː

Noun

petty (plural pettyek)

1. dot, spot, fleck, speck

   Synonyms: folt, pont, paca, pecsét, csepp, (on the face) szeplő

Derived terms

• pettyes
• pettyez

 

(Expressions):

• hétpettyes katicabogár (“seven-spot[ted] ladybird/ladybug”)

Declension

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 reading

• petty in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN