different between few vs faw

English

Etymology

From Middle English fewe, from Old English f?aw (“few”), from Proto-Germanic *fawaz (“few”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh?w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old Saxon f? (“few”), Old High German fao, f? (“few, little”), Old Norse fár (“few”), Gothic ???????????????? (faus, “few”), Latin paucus (“little, few”) (whence English pauper, poor etc.). More at poor.

Pronunciation

• (UK)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fju?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /fju/
• Rhymes: -u?
• Homophone: phew

Determiner

few (comparative fewer or less, superlative fewest or least)

1. (preceded by another determiner) An indefinite, but usually small, number of.

   There are a few cars (=some, but a relatively small number) in the street.

   I was expecting a big crowd at the party, but very few people (=almost none) turned up.

   Quite a few people (=a significant number) were pleasantly surprised.

   I think he's had a few drinks. [This usage is likely ironic.]

2. (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.

3. (meteorology, of clouds) Obscuring one to two oktas (eighths) of the sky.

   NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomena aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomena are surface-based, such as fog.

4. (meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.

Usage notes

• Few is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart little is used with uncountable nouns.

• Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, "a few" could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few in this context means a very very small percentage but far more than the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it in its use with much much smaller numbers.

• Few is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license negative polarity items. For example, anything usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with few.

• He didn't do anything to help us.
• *He did anything to help us. (ungrammatical)
• Few people did anything to help us.
• *A few people did anything to help us. (ungrammatical, since a few is a different unit of meaning from few and does not license NPIs)

• Few alone emphasises smallness of number, while a few emphasises some. For example: He's a dull man with few ideas; He's a clever man with a few ideas.

Synonyms

• little (see usage)

Antonyms

• many

Derived terms

• a few
• a good few
• quite a few

Related terms

• paucity
• poor

Translations

Pronoun

few

1. Few people, few things.

   Many are called, but few are chosen.

Antonyms

• many

Translations

References

• Meteorology (both senses)

  NOAA Glossary: f

Middle English

Determiner

few

1. Alternative form of fewe

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Onomatopoetic.

Interjection

faw

1. Alternative form of faugh

Synonyms

• (disgust): bleah, eww, ick, pooh, uck; see also Thesaurus:yuck
• (contempt): feh, pfaugh, pish, pshaw, pooh; see also Thesaurus:bah

Etymology 2

Phonetic rendering of for.

Preposition

faw

1. Pronunciation spelling of for; chiefly used to represent the accent of slaves in the United States.
   • 1907, George Washington Cable, Old Creole Days, Gutenberg eBook #10234,

     “ […] Now, Colossus, what air you a-beckonin? at me faw?”

Etymology 3

From the surname Faa.

Noun

faw (plural faws)

1. A gypsy.

Anagrams

• FWA, WAF

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English fawe, fa?e, from Old English f?g, f?h (“coloured; stained; dyed; tinged; shining; variegated”), from Proto-West Germanic *faih, from Proto-Germanic *faihaz (“coloured; motley”), from Proto-Indo-European *pey?- (“to paint; mark; colour”).

Adjective

faw (comparative mair faw, superlative maist faw)

1. Of various colours; variegated