petit - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛti/, /pəˈtiː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛtət/, /pəˈti/, /pəˈtit/
• Rhymes: (UK) -ɛti, (UK) -iː, (US) -iːt

From Middle English petit, from Old French petit, from Late Latin *pitittus, diminutive of Latin *pit-, possibly from Proto-Celtic *pett- (“part, bit, piece”) (see Latin pettia),^[1] or of imitative origin.^[2]

Compare also Latin pitinnus (“small”), pitulus, Italian pezza. Doublet of petty.

petit (comparative more petit, superlative most petit)

1. (now uncommon, of size) Petite: small, little.
   • 1684 or 1685 February 22, Robert South, A Sermon preached at Westminster-Abbey:

     And by what small, petit Hints does the Mind catch hold of, and recover a vanishing Notion?

2. Petty, in its various senses:
   1. (obsolete) Few in number.
   2. (now uncommon, of objects) Unimportant; cheap; easily replaced.
   3. (law, of scale) Small, minor.
   4. (now rare) Secondary; lower in rank.

• petite, petty
• petit gâteau

• puisne, puny

petit (plural petits)

1. (obsolete, usually in the plural) A little schoolboy.
2. (obsolete, rare) A kind of pigeon.

From French petit (“brevier”) directly or via German Petit (“brevier”).

petit (uncountable)

1. (printing, dated, French and German contexts) Synonym of brevier.

• Petti

Inherited from Vulgar Latin pittitus, an expressive creation (with variant forms pitinnus, pitulus, piccinus, pitikkus, etc.). Compare Occitan and French petit.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [pəˈtit]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [peˈtit]

petit (feminine petita, masculine plural petits, feminine plural petites)

1. small, little

   Antonym: gros

• a les petites
• empetitir
• petitesa
• petitó

• “petit” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “petit”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “petit” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “petit” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

petit

1. second-person singular past indicative of pettää

• petti

Compare French petit.

petit (feminine petita, masculine plural petits, feminine plural petites) (ORB, broad)

1. little

   Synonyms: pègno, petiôt

   Antonym: grant

• petiôt

• petit in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
• petit in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

• ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France^[1] [Linguistic Atlas of France] – map 623: “mon petit garçon” – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “*pettīttus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 8: Patavia–Pix, page 342

Inherited from Old French petit, from Vulgar Latin pittitus (775; compare Latin pitinnus, pitulus). Compare Spanish pequeño.

• IPA^(key): /pə.ti/, /p.ti/, (in liaison) /pə.ti.t‿/, /p.ti.t‿/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): [p(ə)tsi]
• (Louisiana) IPA^(key): /pti/, /piti/, /ti/

petit (feminine petite, masculine plural petits, feminine plural petites, comparative moindre, superlative le moindre)

1. small

   Antonym: grand

   un petit verre de vin ― a small glass of wine

2. little

   un petit garçon ― a little boy

3. petty

   Certaines personnes sont vraiment petites à propos des plus petites choses.

   Some people are really petty about the smallest things.

Only three French adjectives have an irregular comparative: petit (moindre, but in certain senses only), mauvais (pire) and bon (meilleur).

petit m (plural petits, feminine petite)

1. small one (anything that is small)
2. little one (anything that is little)
3. little one; child (of humans or other animals)
4. the young (of a species)

   Le petit du lapin s’appelle le "lapereau".

   A young rabbit is called a "kit".

Often contracted, in popular or familiar speech, to p’tit (/pti/).

• Louisiana Creole: piti
• Michif: pchi
• → Portuguese: petiz
  • → Spanish: petiso

• “petit”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpe.tit/, [ˈpɛt̪ɪt̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpe.tit/, [ˈpɛːt̪it̪]

petit

1. third-person singular present active indicative of petō

• petyt, petyte, (error) peter

From Middle French petit, from Old French petit. See Modern English petit, above. Attested from at least the 13th century, with use in names earlier.

petit

1. small

   • 1454, Church of England, Province of Canterbury, Fifty earliest English wills in the Court of Probate, London, published 1964, “Thomas Bathe, of Bristol, 1420”:

     Item I petit brase morter, I pesteƚƚ de ferro.

     Item: one small brass mortar, with one pestle of iron.

From Old French petit.

petit m (feminine singular petite, masculine plural petitz, feminine plural petites)

1. small

• French: petit

petit m (plural petits, feminine singular petite, feminine plural petites)

1. something that is small

petit m (feminine singular petita, masculine plural petits, feminine plural petitas)

1. small

   Synonym: pichon

   Antonym: grand

• petitesa

• Joan de Cantalausa (2006) Diccionari general occitan a partir dels parlars lengadocians‎^[2], 2 edition, →ISBN, page 743.

• peti, pitet

From Latin *pitittus (compare Latin pitinnus, pitulus), which according to Watkins is of imitative origin.^[1]

petit m (oblique and nominative feminine singular petite)

1. small, little
2. worthless; valueless
3. poor; of poor quality

• Middle French: petit
  • French: petit
• → English: petit, petty
• → Italian: petitto