different between skimpy vs puny

English

Etymology

From skimp +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sk?mpi/
• Rhymes: -?mpi

Adjective

skimpy (comparative skimpier, superlative skimpiest)

1. Small or inadequate; not generous, or of a garment, very small, light, or revealing.

Translations

Noun

skimpy (plural skimpies)

1. (Australia, Western Australia) A barmaid who wears little clothing. [From 1988.]
   • 2000, Australian Journal of Mining, page 2,

     It's a curious mix: weatherworn miners, fresh faced bankers, and a couple of g-stringed skimpies.

   • 2007, Terry Carter, Lara Dunston, Perth & Western Australia, Lonely Planet, page 159,

     For an anthropological experience, the front bar at the Exchange Hotel provides a window into some locals? lives at all hours of the day, with skimpies, TV sports and mine workers chain-drinking.

   • 2010, Kathy Marks, Tears of the Sun, Robert Drewe (editor), The Best Australian Essays 2010, page 239,

     ‘ […] There are thirty-two hotels in Kalgoorlie, and only seven would have skimpies [scantily clad barmaids].’

Derived terms

• skimpy work

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.