different between little vs lit

English

Etymology

From Middle English litel, from Old English l?tel, from Proto-Germanic *l?tilaz (“tending to stoop, crouched, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to bend, bent, small”), equivalent to lout +? -le. Cognate with Dutch luttel, regional German lütt and lützel, West Frisian lyts, Low German lütt, Old High German luzzil, Middle High German lützel, Old English l?tan (“to bow, bend low”); and perhaps to Old English lytig (“deceitful, lot deceit”), Gothic ???????????????????? (liuts, “deceitful”), ???????????????????????? (lutjan, “to deceive”); compare also Icelandic lítill (“little”), Swedish liten, Danish liden, lille, Gothic ???????????????????????????? (leitils), which appear to have a different root vowel. More at lout.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l?t?l/, [?l?tl?], [?l?.t???]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?l?tl?/, [?l?.???], [???.??]
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?l?tl?/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?l?.???/
• Rhymes: -?t?l
• Hyphenation: lit?tle
• Homophone: Littell

Adjective

little (comparative less or lesser or littler, superlative least or littlest)

1. Small in size.

2. Insignificant, trivial.
   1. (offensive) Used to belittle a person.

3. Very young.

4. (of a sibling) Younger.

5. (also Little) Used with the name of a place, especially of a country or its capital, to denote a neighborhood whose residents or storekeepers are from that place.
   • 1871 October 18, The One-eyed Philosopher [pseudonym], "Street Corners", in Judy: or the London serio-comic journal, volume 9, page 255 [1]:

     If you want to find Little France, take any turning on the north side of Leicester square, and wander in a zigzag fashion Oxford Streetwards. The Little is rather smokier and more squalid than the Great France upon the other side of the Manche.

   • 2004, Barry Miles, Zappa: A Biography, 2005 edition, ?ISBN, page 5:

     In the forties, hurdy-gurdy men could still be heard in all those East Coast cities with strong Italian neighbourhoods: New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. A visit to Baltimore's Little Italy at that time was like a trip to Italy itself.

   • 2020, Richa Bhosale, "Croatian Hall in need of repairs to remain open," Timmins Daily Press:

     "The theatre was bought by the Croatian immigrants as so many immigrants came here in the ’30s and mostly for mining jobs, but in Schumacher itself it was called little Zagreb, and Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. There were so many of them that they wanted to have their own little community, so they bought the theatre and they renovated it at that time, remodelled it and made it into a Croatian Hall," she explained.

6. Having few members.

7. Short in duration; brief.

   I feel better after my little sleep.

8. Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous.

   • The long-necked geese of the world that are ever hissing dispraise, / Because their natures are little.

   • 2001, Nicholas Petsalis-Diomidis, The Unknown Callas: the Greek Years, pg 547.

     Showing unmistakably what a little person he really was, in June 1949 he wrote his newly married daughter with nauseating disregard for the truth

Usage notes

Some authorities regard both littler and littlest as non-standard. The OED says of the word little: "the adjective has no recognized mode of comparison. The difficulty is commonly evaded by resort to a synonym (as smaller, smallest); some writers have ventured to employ the unrecognized forms littler, littlest, which are otherwise confined to dialect or imitations of childish or illiterate speech." The forms lesser and least are encountered in animal names such as lesser flamingo and least weasel.

Antonyms

• (small): large, big
• (young): big
• (younger): big

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

little (comparative less or lesser, superlative least)

1. Not much.

   We slept very little last night.

   • Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy […] distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour.

2. Not at all.

Antonyms

• much

Translations

Determiner

little (comparative less, superlative least)

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

   There is (very) little water left.

   We had very little to do.

Usage notes

• Little is used with uncountable nouns, few with plural countable nouns.
• Little can be used with or without an article. With the indefinite article, the emphasis is that there is indeed some, albeit not much:

We have a little money, so we'll probably get by.

With no article or the definite article (or what), the emphasis is on the scarcity:

We have little money, and little hope of getting more.

The little (or What little) money we have is all going to pay for food and medication, so we can't save any.

See also

• a little

Antonyms

• (not much): much

Translations

Pronoun

little

1. Not much; not a large amount.

   Little is known about his early life.

Noun

little (plural littles)

1. A small amount.

   Can I try a little of that sauce?

   Many littles make a mickle. (Scottish proverb)

   Little did he do to make me comfortable.

   If you want some cake, there's a little in the refrigerator

2. (BDSM, slang) The participant in ageplay who acts out the younger role.
3. (colloquial, college slang) A newly initiated member of a sorority.

Antonyms

• (BDSM): big

Derived terms

• little space

Related terms

• a little
• li'l, li'l', lil
• little by little
• little old
• belittle (cognate verb)

Anagrams

• tillet

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English lihte, from Old English l?htte, first and third person singular preterit of l?htan (“to light”). More at light.

Verb

lit

1. simple past tense and past participle of light (“illuminate; start a fire; etc”)
2. simple past tense and past participle of light (“alight: land, come down on”)

Verb

lit (third-person singular simple present lits, present participle litting, simple past and past participle litted)

1. (US, dialectal) To run or light (alight).

Adjective

lit (comparative more lit, superlative most lit)

1. Illuminated.

   Synonyms: lighted, luminous; see also Thesaurus:illuminated, Thesaurus:shining

2. (slang) Intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

   Synonyms: stoned; see also Thesaurus:stoned, Thesaurus:drunk

3. (slang) Sexually aroused (usually of a female), especially visibly sexually aroused.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:randy

4. (slang) Exciting, captivating; fun.
   • 2017, Justin Allec, Adrian Lysenko, & Kirsti Salmi, "Sounds of the City: Part VI", The Walleye, November 2017, page 8:

     DJ sets so lit the dance floor's dripping with sweat?

   • 2018, James Courtney, "Music Picks", San Antonio Current, 4 July 2018, page 39:

     If indie punk, pop-punk, post-punk, and emo happen to be your bag, this early-week show at Paper Tiger is gonna be lit.

   • 2018, Shan Kekahuna, "Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!", MauiTime, 27 December 2018, page 17:

     New Year's Eve is once a year and it's gonna be lit.

5. (slang) Excellent, fantastic; cool.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:excellent

   • 2017, "Out with the old, in with the new", Dundrum Gazette, 8 June 2017, page 18:

     […] will keep your feet looking lit this summer thanks to the Trainer Exchange.

   • 2019, "Top 10 Plastic Surgeons in Manhattan", Art Bodega Magazine, December/January 2019:

     At his Upper East Side office, the talented doctor has a very lit and elegant office, where art canvasses the walls.

   • 2019, Alice Ridley, "Letter from the Editor", Connect Magazine, October 2019, page 4:

     The fourth article is all about autumnal leaf photography tips to get our Instagram photos looking lit.

Derived terms

• half lit
• illlit

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English lit, lut, from Old English l?t (“little, few”), from Proto-Germanic *l?tilaz (“little, small”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to cower, hunch over”). Cognate with Old Saxon lut (“little”), Middle High German lützen (“to make small or low, decrease”). More at little.

Adjective

lit (comparative litter or more lit, superlative littest or most lit)

1. (obsolete) Little.

Noun

lit (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Little.

Related terms

• lite

Etymology 3

From Middle English lit, from Old Norse litr (“colour, dye, complexion, face, countenance”), from Proto-Germanic *wlitiz, *wlitaz (“sight, face”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to see”). Cognate with Icelandic litur (“colour”), Old English wlite (“brightness, appearance, form, aspect, look, countenance, beauty, splendor, adornment”), Old English wl?tan (“to gaze, look, observe”).

Noun

lit (uncountable)

1. (Britain dialectal) Colour; blee; dye; stain.

Derived terms

• lithouse
• litmus

Etymology 4

From Middle English litten, liten, from Old Norse lita (“to colour”), from litr (“colour”). See above.

Verb

lit (third-person singular simple present lits, present participle litting, simple past and past participle litted)

1. (transitive) To colour; dye.

Etymology 5

Short for literature.

Noun

lit (uncountable)

1. Clipping of literature.

Derived terms

• chick lit
• lit crit
• litfan
• misery lit
• quit lit

Anagrams

• 'til, TIL, TLI, til

Faroese

Etymology

From the verb líta (‘to view’)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [li?t]

Noun

lit n (genitive singular lits, uncountable)

1. short wink, view, look

Declension

Synonyms

• eygnabrá (wink)

Derived terms

• andlit (face)
• álit (trust)
• eftirlit (control)
• fyrilit (caution)
• innlit (insight)
• útlit (outlook)
• yvirlit (overview, summary)

French

Etymology

From Old French lit, from Latin lectus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li/
• Homophone: lits

Noun

lit m (plural lits)

1. bed

Derived terms

Verb

lit

1. third-person singular present indicative of lire

Further reading

• “lit” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Icelandic

Noun

lit

1. indefinite accusative/dative singular of litur

Lashi

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lit/

Noun

lit

1. air

References

• Hkaw Luk (2017) A grammatical sketch of Lacid?^[2], Chiang Mai: Payap University (master thesis)

Middle English

Noun

lit

1. Alternative form of light

Norman

Noun

lit m (plural lits)

1. Alternative form of llit (“bed”)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li?t/

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hlít

Noun

lit f or m (definite singular)

1. trust

Etymology 2

Verb

lit

1. present tense of lite
2. imperative of lite

Etymology 3

lìt m (definite singular lìten, indefinite plural lìter or lìtir, definite plural lìterne or lìtine)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 1917; superseded by let

References

• “lit” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• ilt, til

Old French

Etymology

From Latin lectus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lit/

Noun

lit m (oblique plural liz or litz, nominative singular liz or litz, nominative plural lit)

1. bed

Descendants

• French: lit

Old Norse

Noun

lit n

1. vision
2. sight
3. vision

Related terms

• líta (“to see”)

References

• J.Fritzners ordbok over Det gamle norske sprog, dvs. norrøn ordbok ("J.Fritnzer's dictionary of the old Norwegian language, i.e. Old Norse dictionary"), on lit.

Anagrams

• til

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?it/

Etymology 1

Noun

lit m inan

1. lithium
2. (informal) lithium carbonate, a drug used in the treatment of bipolar disorder

Declension

Etymology 2

Noun

lit m anim

1. litas (currency of Lithuania)

Declension

Further reading

• lit in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

lit f

1. genitive singular of lite

Sumbawa

Noun

lit

1. sea

Swedish

Noun

lit c

1. trust

Declension

Synonyms

• tillit

See also

• lita

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from German Licht and English light.

Noun

lit (nominative plural lits)

1. light
2. illumination

Declension

Westrobothnian

Verb

lit (preterite litä or littä, supine litt or litti)

1. (transitive) trust, obey, follow someone’s advice

   Lit meg; ji val int ångerköft

   Follow my advice, you will not regret the purchase.

Derived terms

• litsam
• olitsam

Verb

lit (preterite litä)

1. (intransitive) be expensive, heavy; strain

   Hä lit på tulumodä

   It tries the patience.

Zay

Noun

lit

1. tree-bark

References

• Initial SLLE Survey of the Zway Area by Klaus Wedekind and Charlotte Wedekind