different between little vs somewhat
little
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)
- Small in size.
- Insignificant, trivial.
- (offensive) Used to belittle a person.
- (offensive) Used to belittle a person.
- Very young.
- (of a sibling) Younger.
- (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.
- 1871 October 18, The One-eyed Philosopher [pseudonym], "Street Corners", in Judy: or the London serio-comic journal, volume 9, page 255 [1]:
- Having few members.
- Short in duration; brief.
- I feel better after my little sleep.
- 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)
- 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.
- Not at all.
Antonyms
- much
Translations
Determiner
little (comparative less, superlative least)
- 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
- Not much; not a large amount.
- Little is known about his early life.
Noun
little (plural littles)
- 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
- (BDSM, slang) The participant in ageplay who acts out the younger role.
- (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
little From the web:
- what little women character are you
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- what little wonder
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- what little island is in the allstate commercial
somewhat
English
Alternative forms
- (British, dialectal) summat (and variants listed there)
Etymology
some +? what
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?s?mw?t/
- (US) IPA(key): /?s?mw?t/
- Hyphenation: some?what
- Rhymes: -?t
Adverb
somewhat (not comparable)
- (degree) To a limited extent or degree.
Translations
See also
- slightly
Pronoun
somewhat
- (archaic) Something.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.12:
- Proceeding to the midst he stil did stand, / As if in minde he somewhat had to say […].
- a. 1716, Robert Trail, sermon on the Lord's Prayer
- But this text and theme I am upon, relates to somewhat far higher and greater, than all the beholdings of his glory that ever any saint on earth received.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.12:
Translations
Noun
somewhat (countable and uncountable, plural somewhats)
- More or less; a certain quantity or degree; a part, more or less; something.
- 1682, Nehemiah Grew, Anatomy of Plants
- its taste, which is plainly acid, and somewhat rough
- Somewhat of his good sense will suffer, in this transfusion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will be lost.
- To these ladies a man often recommends himself while he is commending another woman; and, while he is expressing ardour and generous sentiments for his mistress, they are considering what a charming lover this man would make to them, who can feel all this tenderness for an inferior degree of merit. Of this, strange as it may seem, I have seen many instances besides Mrs Fitzpatrick, to whom all this really happened, and who now began to feel a somewhat for Mr Jones, the symptoms of which she much sooner understood than poor Sophia had formerly done.
- 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 558:
- Then they set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, and gave me somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and covered my nakedness; after which they took me up into the ship, […]
- 1682, Nehemiah Grew, Anatomy of Plants
- A person or thing of importance; a somebody.
- c. 1810-1820, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Troilus and Cressida
- Pity that the researchful notary has not either told us in what century, and of what history, he was a writer, or been simply content to depose, that Lollius, if a writer of that name existed at all, was a somewhat somewhere.
- ?, Alfred Tennyson, St. Simeon Stylites
- Here come those that worship me? Ha! ha! / They think that I am somewhat.
- c. 1810-1820, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Troilus and Cressida
somewhat From the web:
- what somewhat means
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- what does somewhat vain mean in pokemon
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