different between tiny vs puny

English

Alternative forms

• tyny (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English tine, tyne (“very small”) + -y. Perhaps from tine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ta?ni/

• Rhymes: -a?ni

Adjective

tiny (comparative tinier, superlative tiniest)

1. Very small.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:tiny

Antonyms

• huge
• great

Derived terms

• tininess
• tinily

Translations

Noun

tiny (plural tinies)

1. A small child; an infant.
   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not…, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p. 28:

     ‘You know I loved your husband like a brother, and you know I've loved you and Sylvia ever since she was a tiny.’

   • 1982, Young children in China (page 84)

     The lessons we saw have been well suited to the age of the children as regards music, singing and moving (and stories about animals for the tinies and more abstract themes for the older children).

2. Anything very small.

Translations

Anagrams

• tiyn

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.