different between lack vs few
lack
English
Etymology
Middle English, cognate with or from Middle Low German lak, Middle Dutch lac (“deficiency”) and Middle Dutch laken (“blame, lack”); all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *laka-, related to *lak(k)?n- (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh?-. See also Dutch lak (“calumny”), Old Norse lakr (“lacking”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /lak/
- (US) IPA(key): /læk/
- Rhymes: -æk
Noun
lack (countable and uncountable, plural lacks)
- (obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
- A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.
- c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1,[1]
- […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;
- 1994, Green Day, Basket Case
- I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.
- c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1,[1]
Antonyms
- glut
- surplus
Derived terms
- lackless
Translations
Verb
lack (third-person singular simple present lacks, present participle lacking, simple past and past participle lacked)
- (transitive) To be without, to need, to require.
- My life lacks excitement.
- (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).
- He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.
- c. 1600,, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4,[2]
- Hamlet. What hour now?
- Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To be in want.
- 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 34.10,[3]
- The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger […]
- 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 34.10,[3]
- (obsolete) To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
- c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, II:
- That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.
- c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, II:
Related terms
- lackluster
Translations
Further reading
- Kroonen, Guus (2013) , “lak(k)on-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, ?ISBN, page 325
Anagrams
- calk, kcal
German
Pronunciation
Verb
lack
- imperative singular of lacken
- (colloquial) first-person singular present of lacken
Swedish
Etymology
From French lacre (“sealing wax”), from Portuguese laca.
Noun
lack n
- lacquer
Declension
Related terms
- klarlack
- lacknafta
- lackskor
- nagellack
lack From the web:
- what lack i yet
- what lacks a nucleus
- what lack of sleep does to you
- what lack of sleep does to your brain
- what lack of vitamin causes hair loss
- what lacks a cell wall
- what lack i yet scripture
- what lack means
few
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)
- (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.]
- (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
- (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.
- (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
- 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
- Alternative form of fewe
few From the web:
- what fewer means
- what few means
- what fewer
- what fewest mean
- what few days means
- what few companies own everything
- what few hours mean
- what few weeks means
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