Contextualizebeta

little

adj
/ˈlɪ.tl̩//ˈlɪtəl/

Etymology

From Middle English litel, litell, luitel, lutel, lutil, luytel, from Old English lȳtel, lyttel, from Proto-West Germanic *lūtil (“little”), from *lūtan (“to bow down, lout”), from Proto-Germanic *lūtaną (“to bow down, lout”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to bend, crouch, duck”), equivalent to lout + -le. Cognates Cognate with Yola lethel, litha, lithel, lythea (“little”), North Frisian letj (“little, small”), Saterland Frisian litje (“little, small”), West Frisian lyts (“little, small”), Dutch luttel (“few, little, mere”), German lütt, lützel (“little, small”), Low German lütt, lüttje (“little, small”), Danish liden, lille (“little, small”), Elfdalian litn (“small”), Faroese lítil (“little, small”), Icelandic lítill (“little, small”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish liten (“little, small”), Crimean Gothic lista (“insufficient, very little”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (leitils, “little, small”); also Albanian lus, lut (“to beg, plead, request”), Lithuanian liūdnas (“sad, sorrowful”), Bulgarian and Macedonian луд (lud, “crazy, insane, mad”), Serbo-Croatian лу̑д, lȗd (“crazy”). Related also to Old English lūtan (“to bow, bend low”); and perhaps to Old English lytiġ (“deceitful”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍄𐍃 (liuts, “deceitful”). More at lout.

  1. derived from *lewd-✻ — “to bend, crouch, duck”
  2. inherited from *lūtaną✻ — “to bow down, lout”
  3. inherited from *lūtil✻ — “little”
  4. inherited from lȳtel
  5. inherited from litel

Definitions

  1. Small, not large, limited

    • This is a little table.

  2. Not much.

    • This is a little-known fact: the new model is little faster than the old one.
    • She spoke little and listened less.
    • We slept very little last night.

  3. Not at all.

    • Little did he know that the burglar was creeping upstairs at that very moment.
    • She little knew what awaited her.
  4. ›+ 9 more definitions

    1. Not much, only a little

      Not much, only a little: only a small amount (of).

      • There is (very) little water left.
      • We had very little to do.

    2. Not much

      Not much; not a large amount.

      • Little is known about his early life.

    3. A small amount.

      • I hope the little we've done will be useful.
      • Little did he do to make me comfortable.
      • If you want some cake, there’s a little in the refrigerator.

    4. A child, particularly an infant.

    5. An adult in a child-like role, or in the more junior of two paired roles.

      • He was there the night of Cristoph's party. All the littles were assigned to their bigs. Ian and Christoph had rushed the same fraternity. When they became upperclassmen, they both ended up on the board.
      • She added that the relationship between bigs and littles is "what each pair makes of it," and that a lot of the pairs often get dinner together and become close friends.
      • Some traditions of the chapter include lineages with bigs and littles, receiving of paddles from a big, and a national stroll, Wolsch-Gallia said.

    6. Ellipsis of little go (“type of examination”).

      • I go up for my Little tomorrow.

    7. A characteristical surname.

    8. An unincorporated community in Breathitt County, Kentucky, United States, named after the…

      An unincorporated community in Breathitt County, Kentucky, United States, named after the local Little family.

    9. An unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States.

The neighborhood

Derived

a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, a little bird told me, a little bit, a little bit of bread and no cheese, a little from column A and a little from column B, a little goes a long way, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, a little learning is a dangerous thing, a little matter, a little of something goes a long way, a little of the creature, and your little dog too, big fish eat little fish, big fish in a little pond, big-fish-little-pond effect, bless someone's little cotton socks, busy little beaver, by little and little, cry like a little girl, do a little bit of trolling, do a little trolling, do-little, don't worry your pretty little head, every little bit helps, every little helps, Fermat's little theorem, fighting little judge, Gowrie Little Plain, grandlittle, Great and Little Hampden, Great and Little Leighs, great cry and little wool, great oaks from little acorns grow, happy little vegemite, have-a-little, have little time for, how's every little thing, in a little while, in little, in one's own little way · +325 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at little. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01little02limited03specified04explained05explain06clear07obscured08less

A definitional loop anchored at little. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at little

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA