different between petty vs pettifogger

English

Etymology

From Middle English pety, from Old French peti, petit. Doublet of petit. The disparaging meaning developed over the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?ti/
• Homophone: Petty
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [?p???i]
  • Homophones: Petty, pedi
• Rhymes: -?ti

Adjective

petty (comparative pettier or more petty, superlative pettiest or most petty)

1. (obsolete except in set phrases) Little, small, secondary in rank or importance.

   petty officer, petty cash
2. Insignificant, trifling, or inconsiderable.

   a petty fault
3. Narrow-minded, small-minded.

4. Begrudging in nature, especially over insignificant matters.

   That corporation is only slightly pettier than they are greedy, and they are overdue to reap the consequences.

Synonyms

• (little, unimportant): See Thesaurus:insignificant
• (begrudging): grudgeful, grudging

Antonyms

• (little): See Thesaurus:big
• (begrudging): See Thesaurus:kindly
• (small-minded): broad-minded

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• quibble

Noun

petty (plural petties)

1. (usually in the plural, obsolete) A little schoolboy, either in grade or size.
2. (historical) A class or school for young schoolboys.
3. (dialect, euphemistic) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.

Synonyms

• (school for young schoolboys): ABC, petty school
• (class for young schoolboys): petty form
• (outhouse): See Thesaurus:outhouse

See also

• Petty France

References

• "petty, adj. and n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary (2005), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• “petty”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• petty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• petty in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Hungarian

Alternative forms

• pötty

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?p?c?]
• Hyphenation: petty
• Rhymes: -?c?

Noun

petty (plural pettyek)

1. dot, spot, fleck, speck

   Synonyms: folt, pont, paca, pecsét, csepp, (on the face) szepl?

Derived terms

(Expressions):

• hétpettyes katicabogár (“seven-spot[ted] ladybird/ladybug”)

Declension

Further reading

• petty in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

English

Etymology

petty + fogger

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p?t??f???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?t??f????/, /?p?t??f????/
• Rhymes: -???(r)

Noun

pettifogger (plural pettifoggers)

1. Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections and sophistry.
   • 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 39:

     Hence the cunning measure of appointing as ambassador some political pettifogger skilled in delays, sophisms, and misapprehensions, and dexterous in the art of baffling argument.

2. An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.

   Synonym: shyster

   • 1822, Sir Walter Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. 11:

     "An inn, or a tavern . . . these are places where greasy citizens take pipe and pot, where the knavish pettifoggers of the law spunge on their most unhappy victims.

   • 1885, The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 6:

     . . .yet he has never sought by browbeating and other arts of the pettifogger, to confuse, baffle, and bewilder a witness. . . .

   • 1926 June 28, "National Affairs: Blind Mans Huff," Time:

     "Donald Hughes, well known in Minneapolis as a conscienceless shyster, was placed in charge of the case. . . . Mr. Edgerton, a high class, reputable lawyer, was called in of counsel from another city to lend respectability to the crooked, unprincipled, blackmailing pettifogger, Hughes."

Related terms

• pettifog
• pettifoggery

Translations