different between slight vs somewhat

English

Etymology

From Middle English slight (“bad, of poor quality, unimportant, trivial, slender, slim, smooth, level”), from Old English sliht (“smooth, level”), from Proto-Germanic *slihtaz (“slippery, flat, level, plain”), related to English slick. Cognate with Scots slicht (“bad, of poor quality”), West Frisian sljocht (“smooth, level, plain, simple”), Dutch slecht (“bad”), Low German slecht (“bad”), German schlecht (“bad”) and schlicht (“plain, artless, natural”), Danish slet (“bad, evil, poor, nasty, wrong”), Swedish slät (“smooth”), Norwegian slett (“even”), Icelandic sléttur (“even, smooth, level”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sl?t, IPA^(key): /sla?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): [sl?l?????]
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophone: sleight

Adjective

slight (comparative slighter, superlative slightest)

1. Small
   1. gentle or weak, not aggressive or powerful

   2. not thorough; superficial

   3. trifling; unimportant; insignificant
      • 1741, John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education & of the Conduct of the Understanding

        Some firmly embrace doctrines upon slight grounds.

   4. (archaic or rare) not far away in space or time

   Synonyms: ignorable, meaningless, negligible, tiny; see also Thesaurus:tiny, Thesaurus:insignificant

2. of slender build
   • 1822, Sir Walter Scott, Peveril of the Peak

     his own figure, which was formerly so slight

   Synonyms: lithe, svelte, willowy; see also Thesaurus:slender

3. (regional) Even, smooth or level

   Synonyms: flat, glassy, slick; see also Thesaurus:smooth

4. (especially said of the sea) still; with little or no movement on the surface

5. (obsolete) Foolish; silly; not intellectual.

   Synonyms: daft, fatuous, soft in the head; see also Thesaurus:foolish

6. (regional, obsolete) Bad, of poor quality.
   • 1889 (first published), George Washington, Writings

     we frequently have slight Goods and sometimes old and unsaleable Articles

   Synonyms: flimsy, lousy, shoddy; see also Thesaurus:low-quality

7. (dated) Slighting; treating with disdain.

   Synonyms: contemptuous, disdainful, scornful; see also Thesaurus:disdainful

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

slight (third-person singular simple present slights, present participle slighting, simple past and past participle slighted)

1. (transitive) To treat as unimportant or not worthy of attention; to make light of.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Truth

     the wretch who slights the bounty of the skies

2. (transitive) To give lesser weight or importance to.
   • 1915, Josephine Turck Baker, Correct English (volumes 16-17, page 182)

     Incontiguously (accent on tig; the rest of the syllables slighted) means in an incontiguous manner.

   Synonym: belittle

   Antonyms: respect, value, esteem

3. (transitive) To treat with disdain or neglect, usually out of prejudice, hatred, or jealousy; to ignore disrespectfully.
   • 1833, Mary Shelley, The Mortal Immortal

     Though true of heart, she was somewhat of a coquette in manner; and I was jealous as a Turk. She slighted me in a thousand ways, yet would never acknowledge herself to be in the wrong. She would drive me mad with anger, and then force me to beg her pardon.

   Synonyms: contemn, despise

   Antonyms: respect, honor

4. (intransitive) To act negligently or carelessly. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. (transitive, military, of a fortification) To render no longer defensible by full or partial demolition.
6. (transitive) To make even or level.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Hexham to this entry?)

7. (transitive) To throw heedlessly.

Derived terms

• slightingly

Translations

Noun

slight (plural slights)

1. The act of slighting; a deliberate act of neglect or discourtesy.

   Synonyms: ignoring, neglect, belittlement

   Antonym: respect

   • 1793, Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

     Never use a slighting expression to her, even in jest; for slights in jest, after frequent bandyings, are apt to end in angry earnest.
2. (obsolete) Sleight.

   • For till that stownd could never wight him harme,
     By subtilty, nor slight, nor might, nor mighty charme.

Derived terms

• put a slight upon

Translations

Further reading

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language
• The Dictionary of the Scots Language
• The Middle English Dictionary

Anagrams

• lights

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English sliht, from Proto-Germanic *slihtaz.

Alternative forms

• sli?t, slei?te, sle?t, slyght, sleght, sleight, sly?t

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slixt/, /sl?xt/
• Rhymes: -ixt

Adjective

slight

1. Level, even, smooth; having no bumps or lumps.
2. (rare) Of little importance or relevance.
3. (rare) Slim, narrow, skinny; of little breadth.
4. (rare) Badly made, poorly-built, or low-quality.

Descendants

• English: slight
• Scots: slicht
• Yola: sleight

References

• “slight, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-12-12.

Etymology 2

Noun

slight

1. Alternative form of sleight

Adjective

slight

1. Alternative form of sleight

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)

1. (degree) To a limited extent or degree.

Translations

See also

• slightly

Pronoun

somewhat

1. (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.

Translations

Noun

somewhat (countable and uncountable, plural somewhats)

1. 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, […]

2. 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.