petty

See also: Petty

Contents

English

Etymology

From Middle English pety, from Middle French petit, English since the late 14th century. 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. (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.

2. 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.

3. Narrow-minded, small-minded.
4. 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.

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

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

Derived terms

Derived terms

• pettiness
• petty cash
• petty crime

• petty king
• petty officer

Translations

little, trifling, or inconsiderable, as a petty fault

• Armenian: մանր (hy) (manr)
• 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) (chiisai), 微小な (ja) (bishō na), (of a person) 凡庸な (ja) (bon'yō na), 狭量 (ja) (kyōryō)

• Latin: minutus (la)
• Macedonian: ситен m (síten), мал m (mal)
• 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, liten (sv), obetydlig (sv)
• Ukrainian: мали́й (uk) (malýj), дріб'язко́вий (dribʺjazkóvyj)
• Welsh: mân (cy), pitw (cy)

small-minded

• German: kleinlich (de)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: smålig (no)

• Spanish: meticuloso (es), detallista, mezquino (es), nimio (es)

begrudging

• 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. (now historical) A class or school for young schoolboys.
3. (dialectal, 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

References

• "petty, adj. and n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary (2005), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• petty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• petty in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911