different between puny vs pumy

English

Etymology

From Middle French puisné. See puisne.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pju?ni/
• Rhymes: -u?ni

Adjective

puny (comparative punier, superlative puniest)

1. Of inferior size, strength or significance; small, weak, ineffective.
   • Breezes laugh to scorn our puny speed.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:scrawny

Translations

Noun

puny (plural punies)

1. (obsolete, Oxford University slang) A new pupil at a school etc.; a junior student.
2. (obsolete) A younger person.
   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State and the Profane State

     who had rather others should make a ladder of his dead corpse to scale a city by it, than a bridge of him whilst alive for his punies to give him the go-by
3. (obsolete) A beginner, a novice.
4. (archaic) An inferior person; a subordinate.

Synonyms

• (new pupil): fresher, freshman, new bug, novi (Tonbridge School), shadow (Westminster School)
• (beginner): newb, rookie, tenderfoot; see also Thesaurus:beginner
• (subordinate): junior, underling, vassal

See also

• punny – relating to a pun

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan, from Latin pugnus, from Proto-Indo-European *pu?nos, *pu?nos, from *pew?-, *peu?- (“prick, punch”).

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?pu?/

Noun

puny m (plural punys)

1. fist

Related terms

• punyal
• punyeta

Further reading

• “puny” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “puny” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “puny” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “puny” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

English

Etymology

Compare dialectal English pummer (“big, large”), and pomey (“pommel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pju?mi/

Adjective

pumy (comparative more pumy, superlative most pumy)

1. (obsolete) large and rounded

Noun

pumy (plural pumies)

1. (obsolete) pebble; stone

Anagrams

• umpy, yump