different between few vs mere

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

(body of water; limit; famous; just, only):

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /m??/

(Maori war-club):

• IPA^(key): /?m??i/, /?m???/

Etymology 1

From Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“the sea; mere, lake”), from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognate with West Frisian mar, Dutch meer, Low German meer, Meer, German Meer, Norwegian mar (only used in combinations, such as marbakke). Related to Latin mare, Breton mor, Russian ????? (móre). Doublet of mar and mare.

Alternative forms

• meer, meere, mear

Noun

mere (plural meres)

1. (dialectal or literary) A body of standing water, such as a lake or a pond. More specifically, it can refer to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth. Also included in place names such as Windermere.
   • 1622, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 20 p. 16[1]:

     When making for the Brooke, the Falkoner doth espie

     On River, Plash, or Mere, where store of Fowle doth lye:

   • The meres of Shropshire and Chesbire.

   • 1913, Annie S. Swan, The Fairweathers

     She loved.. to watch the lovely shadows in the silent depths of the placid mere.

   • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber & Faber 2005, p. 194:

     Lok got to his feet and wandered along by the marshes towards the mere where Fa had disappeared.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English mere, from Old English m?re, ?em?re (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic *mairij? (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fence”). Cognate with Dutch meer (“a limit, boundary”), Icelandic mærr (“borderland”), Swedish landamäre (“border, borderline, boundary”).

Alternative forms

• meer, meere, mear, meare

Noun

mere (plural meres)

1. Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ix:

     The Troian Brute did first that Citie found, / And Hygate made the meare thereof by West, / And Ouert gate by North: that is the bound / Toward the land; two riuers bound the rest.

Derived terms

• Hertsmere

Verb

mere (third-person singular simple present meres, present participle mering, simple past and past participle mered)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To set divisions and bounds.
3. (cartography) To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map.

Related terms

• mereing

Etymology 3

From Middle English mere, from Old English m?re (“famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling”), from Proto-Germanic *m?rijaz, *m?raz (“excellent, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *m?ros (“large, handsome”). Cognate with Middle High German mære (“famous”), Icelandic mærr (“famous”), and German Mär, Märchen ("fairy tale").

Alternative forms

• meere, mare

Adjective

mere (comparative more mere, superlative most mere)

1. (obsolete) Famous.

Etymology 4

From Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier, from Latin merus. Perhaps influenced by Old English m?re (“famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling”), or conflated with Etymology 3.

Adjective

mere (comparative merer, superlative merest)

1. (obsolete) Pure, unalloyed [8^th-17^thc.].
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.8:

     So oft as I this history record, / My heart doth melt with meere compassion […].
2. (obsolete) Nothing less than; complete, downright [15^th-18^thc.].
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol I, ch. 35:

     This freedom of expostulation exalted his mother's ire to meer frenzy […] .

3. Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. [from 16^thc.]

   • Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].

Derived terms

• merely

Translations

Etymology 5

Borrowed from Maori mere (“more”).

Noun

mere (plural meres)

1. A Maori war-club.
   • 2000, Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds, Oxford 2000, p. 41:

     As Owen prepared to dismiss the matter, Rule produced something that really caught the great man's eye – a greenstone mere, the warclub of the Maori.

Anagrams

• Emer., REME, erme, meer, reem

Afrikaans

Noun

mere

1. plural of meer

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse meiri (“more”), from Proto-Germanic *maizô.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me?r?/, [?me??]

Adjective

mere

1. more; to a higher degree

   Han er mere højtidelig end jeg er.

   He is more solemn than I am.

2. more; in greater quantity

   I har mere plads end jeg har.

   You have more space than I do.

Usage notes

"Mere", in the second sense, is only used with uncountable nouns. For countable nouns, use flere.

Estonian

Noun

mere

1. genitive singular of meri

Italian

Adjective

mere f

1. feminine plural of mero

Anagrams

• erme

Latin

Verb

mer?

1. second-person singular present active imperative of mere?

References

• mere in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• mere in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch m?ro, from Proto-Germanic *maizô.

Adjective

mêre

2. greater, larger

   Antonym: minre

3. older

   Antonym: minre

Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Determiner

mêre

1. more

   Antonym: minre

Descendants

• Dutch: meer

Adverb

mêre

1. Alternative form of mêe

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch meri, from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri.

Noun

m?re f or n

2. lake (fresh water)
3. sea (salt water)

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Dutch: meer
  • Afrikaans: meer
• Limburgish: maer

Further reading

• “mere (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “mere (III)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “mere (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page I
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “mere (VIII)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN, page VIII

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French mere medre, from Latin m?ter, m?trem.

Noun

mere f (plural meres)

1. mother (female family member)

Descendants

• French: mère
  • Haitian Creole: mè

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri (“sea”). Cognate with Old Frisian mere (West Frisian mar), Old Saxon meri (Low German Meer), Dutch meer, Old High German meri (German Meer), Old Norse marr (Swedish mar). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latin mare, Old Irish muir (Breton mor), Old Church Slavonic ???? (more) (Russian ????? (móre)), Lithuanian mãre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?me.re/

Noun

mere m

1. lake
2. pool
3. (poetic or in compounds) sea

Declension

Derived terms

• meresw?n
• ?þmere

Descendants

• Middle English: mere
  • English: mere
  • Scots: mere

See also

• ?a (“river”)
• g?rse?? (“ocean”)
• s? (“sea”)
• str?am (“stream”)

Old French

Alternative forms

• medre

Etymology

From earlier medre, from Latin m?ter, m?trem.

Noun

mere f (oblique plural meres, nominative singular mere, nominative plural meres)

1. mother (female family member)

Descendants

• Bourguignon: meire
• Middle French: mere
  • French: mère
    • Haitian Creole: mè
• Norman: mère, méthe
• Walloon: mere

Romanian

Noun

mere n pl

1. plural of m?r

Serbo-Croatian

Verb

mere (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. third-person plural present of meriti