{"id":20953,"date":"2021-05-07T15:40:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T15:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=20953"},"modified":"2021-05-07T15:40:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T15:40:27","slug":"petty-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=20953","title":{"rendered":"Petty Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the French conversation group I take part in, the word <strong>petit<\/strong>, which means small or little, is often mispronunced [p\u025bti] rather than [p\u0259.ti], which annoys the founder of group. This might seem a rather petty thing to worry about, but pronunciation is quite important &#8211; not so much within the group, but for when we talk to actual native speakers of French.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/154602402@N02\/24689203528\/in\/photolist-DBGC3U-bMdvWR-37N1RP-21pHEVL-6stHJ-dq3iiY-9wTvXa-8Spq2s-37xZXb-98EkkS-37N1U8-Hy4cDh-GDFPKY-UpwmJf-9M3jqK-byVc3P-8KjH5D-cZowK-5YpbZY-tUwp6V-drYsE8-6H6bP6-6Haf7L-i2xCcw-6H6d5g-tZxP7-6bA7ph-batYdr-piqDWx-9bkGzo-8SmzvM-TybBYX-R17MWB-9toJ6B-86e8dS-frjy2J-86e7NN-hmY4e-4orndq-9jLYaw-2jLwW7C-2jLw1Yh-csn19u-RRkuje-2NgT3V-aPWoGX-2m3zv-7rbQ69-6sr98W-oidv4T\" title=\"Petit fours\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4562\/24689203528_69d9bc88c3_z.jpg\" alt=\"Petit fours\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Petit<\/strong> means small, little, minor, slight, short, mean, child, little one, youngest, young (of an animal).<\/p>\n<p>Some related words and expressions include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>mon petit = dear (<em>used ironically<\/em>), son<\/li>\n<li>ma petite = dear, young lady, sweetheart<\/li>\n<li>les petits (enfants) = small children<\/li>\n<li>les tout-petits = the little ones, the tiny tots, the toddlers<\/li>\n<li>pauvre petit = poor little thing<\/li>\n<li>faire des petits = to have kittens \/ puppies<\/li>\n<li>petit \u00e0 petit = little by little, gradually<\/li>\n<li>petit ami = boyfriend<\/li>\n<li>petit d\u00e9jeuner = breakfast<\/li>\n<li>petit doigt = little finger, pinky<\/li>\n<li>petit-fils = grandson<\/li>\n<li>petite amie = girlfriend<\/li>\n<li>petit caisse = petty cash<\/li>\n<li>petite-fille = granddaughter<\/li>\n<li>petite phrase = catch phrase<\/li>\n<li>petite sortie = stroll<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Petit<\/strong> comes from the Vulgar Latin <em>*pitittus<\/em> (small, little), from <em>*pit-<\/em> or <em>*pittus\/*piccus<\/em> (small, little), possibly from the Proto-Celtic <em>*pett-<\/em> (part, bit, piece) or from <em>*bikkos<\/em> (small, little) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/petit#French\">source<\/a>]. When I noticed the possible Celtic connection I decided to write this post, as such connections interest me a lot. The Proto-Celtic word <em>*bikkos<\/em> is the root of words for small in all the modern Celtic languages, such as <strong>bach<\/strong> in Welsh and <strong>beag<\/strong> in Irish. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2018\/09\/26\/small\/\">More details<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>petit<\/strong> also exists in English and is pronounced [\u02c8p\u025bti] or [p\u0259\u02c8ti\u02d0] in the UK, and [\u02c8p\u025bdi], [p\u0259\u02c8ti] or [p\u0259\u02c8tit] in the American English. It means small, petty or minor [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/petit#English\">source<\/a>]. In it&#8217;s feminine form, <strong>petite<\/strong>, it usually refers to a woman who is short and small.<\/p>\n<p>Both <strong>petit<\/strong> and <strong>petite<\/strong> come from the Old French word <strong>petit<\/strong> (small, little, worthless, poor (quality)). <strong>Petit<\/strong> was used in surnames from 1086, and as an adjective meaning small, little, minor, trifling or insignificant, from the 14th century. <strong>Petite<\/strong> was used from the 18th century, at first to mean little or small in size, usually when referring to a woman or girl, and from the early 20th century it came to refer to a size of women&#8217;s clothing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Petit<\/strong> became <strong>petty<\/strong> in most cases, except in certain expressions, such as <strong>petit bourgeois<\/strong> (conventional middle-class), <strong>petit mal<\/strong> (a mild form of epilepsy), <strong>petit four<\/strong> (small, fancy cake &#8211; see above) [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=petit\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Petty<\/strong> originally meant small, little or minor. By the early 16th century it was being used to mean &#8220;of small or minor importance, not serious&#8221; and by the 1580s it came to mean &#8220;small-minded&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/petty\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>If you are a <strong>petty person<\/strong>, or one who is mean or ungenerous in small or trifling things, you might have <strong>petty grievances<\/strong>, which are of little importance or consequence, and maybe a <strong>petty mind<\/strong>, or narrow ideas and\/or interests, and you might like to take <strong>petty revenge<\/strong>. Maybe you are in charge of the <strong>petty cash<\/strong> (a cash fund for paying small charges), and you might be a a <strong>petty officer<\/strong> (a minor officer on a merchant ship, or a noncommissioned officer in the US Navy) [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/petty\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the French conversation group I take part in, the word petit, which means small or little, is often mispronunced [p\u025bti] rather than [p\u0259.ti], which annoys the founder of group. This might seem a rather petty thing to worry about, but pronunciation is quite important &#8211; not so much within the group, but for when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,111,127,10,15,34,43,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-irish","category-language","category-latin","category-old-french","category-proto-celtic","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20953"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20973,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20953\/revisions\/20973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}