puțin
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Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Uncertain, as with a number of similar words across the Romance languages. Probably from Vulgar Latin *putīnus, a blend/alteration of Latin pisinnus, pittinnus and putillus, pusillus, all meaning “a teeny boy”. Compare Aromanian putsãn; further Albanian picërr, Italian piccino and piccolo, French petit and pitchoun (from Nissart Occitan), Old Logudorese pithinnu, Tarantino piččinnu.[1]
An alternative, perhaps less likely, theory derives it from a Vulgar Latin root *paucīnus, from Latin paucus (“few, little”).[2] Cf. Italian pochino (“a small amount”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]puțin m or n (feminine singular puțină, masculine plural puțini, feminine and neuter plural puține)
(determiner)
Declension
[edit]Declension of puțin
Adverb
[edit]puțin
- a little, few, a small amount
- Antonym: mult
- Amicii mei înțeleg numai puțin românește.
- My friends understand only a little Romanian.
Synonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Przemysław Dębowiak, “Contribution à l’étymologie des adjectifs romans signifiant ‘petit’,” in Essays in the History of Languages and Linguistics: Dedicated to Marek Stachowski on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday, eds. Michał Németh, Barbara Podolak, & Mateusz Urban (Krakow: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2017), 175–90.
- ^ puțin in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)
Categories:
- Romanian terms with unknown etymologies
- Romanian terms inherited from Vulgar Latin
- Romanian terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- Romanian terms derived from Latin
- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Romanian terms with audio links
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian adjectives
- Romanian adverbs
- Romanian terms with usage examples