few

• adj.ほとんどない。
• pron. まれに
• n. 非常に少ない
• n.(少数の)人名；（英）Few.

PIE*pau, little, smallから。語源的にはpoor, pupil, pulletと同じ。

few

few: [OE] Few traces its history back to the Indo- European base *pau-, denoting smallness of quantity or number, amongst whose other descendants are Latin paucus ‘little’ (source of English paucity [15], French peu ‘few’, and Italian and Spanish poco ‘a little’), Latin (and hence English) pauper ‘poor’, and English poor and poverty. In Germanic it produced *faw-, whose modern representatives are Swedish f?, Danish faa, and English few.
=> pauper, poor, poverty

few (adj.)

Old English feawe (plural; contracted to fea) "not many, a small number; seldom, even a little," from Proto-Germanic *faw- (cognates: Old Saxon fa, Old Frisian fe, Old High German fao, Old Norse far, Danish faa).

This is from PIE root *pau- (1) "few, little" (cognates: Latin paucus "few, little," paullus "little," parvus "little, small," pauper "poor;" Greek pauros "few, little," pais (genitive paidos) "child;" Latin puer "child, boy," pullus "young animal;" Oscan puklu "child;" Sanskrit potah "a young animal," putrah "son;" Old English fola "young horse;" Old Norse fylja "young female horse;" Old Church Slavonic puta "bird;" Lithuanian putytis "young animal, young bird").

Always plural in Old English, according to OED "on the analogy of the adverbial fela," meaning "many." Phrase few and far between attested from 1660s. Unusual ironic use in quite a few "many" (1854), earlier a good few (1803).

There is likewise another dialectical use of the word few among them [i.e. "the Northern Counties"], seemingly tending to its total overthrow; for they are bold enough to say--"a good few," meaning a good many. [Samuel Pegge, "Anecdotes of the English Language," London, 1803]

few (n.)

"a small number of persons" (distinguished from the many), c. 1300, fewe, from few (adj.).

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. [Winston Churchill, 1940]

1. I have tried to pack a good deal into a few words.

私はできるだけ簡潔に話します。

2.The economy remains deep in recession with few signs of a pick-up.

経済は依然として不況に陥っており、好転の兆しはほとんどない。

3. Few would argue that this team has experience and proven ability.

このチームの豊富な経験と表現の実力は誰もが公認している。

4.A few are dim-witted drones，but most are talented，frustrated，wasted people.

いくつかは愚かな寄生虫であるが、多くは才能があっても志を得ずに自暴自棄になっている人である。

5.He sweeps up and does a few odds and ends.

彼は畑を掃除して、またいくつかの雑用をした。