little

• adj.わずかな；まれな；短い；小さくて愛らしい
• adv.
• n. 少ない; 多くない; 短い時間
• n. （リトル）人名；（英）リッテル

PIE*leudから、曲がる、回転する、丸まる、小さくなる、語源的にはlout, littleと同じ。派生的に弱い、小さい人、lexical後の一般化。

little

little: [OE] Little goes back to the prehistoric West Germanic base *lut-, which also produced Dutch luttel and may have been the source of the Old English verb lūtan ‘bow down’. Some have detected a link with Old English lot ‘deceit’, Old Norse lyta ‘dishonour, blame’, Russian ludit’ ‘deceive’, and Serbo-Croat lud ‘foolish’.

little (adj.)

Old English lytel "not large, not much; short in distance or time; unimportant," also used in late Old English as a noun, "small piece; a short time," from Proto-Germanic *lutilla- (cognates: Old Saxon luttil, Dutch luttel, Old High German luzzil, German lützel, Gothic leitils "little"), perhaps originally a diminutive of the root of Old English lyt "little, few," from PIE *leud- "small." "Often synonymous with small, but capable of emotional implications which small is not" [OED].

Phrase the little woman "wife" attested from 1795. Little people "the faeries" is from 1726; as "children," it is attested from 1752; as "ordinary people" (opposed to the great), it is attested from 1827. Little Neck clams (1884) are so called for Little Neck, Long Island, a "neck" of land on the island's North Shore. Little by little is from late 15c. (litylle be litille). Little green men "space aliens" is from 1950. Little black dress is from 1939.

At the beginning of summer, smart women who stay in town like to wear sheer "little black dresses." Because most "little black dresses" look alike, retailers struggle each year to find something which will make them seem new. ["Life," June 13, 1939]

Little Orphan Annie originally was (as Little Orphant Annie) the character in James Whitcomb Riley's 1885 poem, originally titled "Elf Child." The U.S. newspaper comic strip created by Harold Gray (1894-1968) debuted in 1924 in the New York "Daily News."

LITTLE Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

[Riley, "Elf Child"]

little (v.)

OE lytlian, from root of little (adj.).

1. It 's not about Making the amazing saves.It 's the little things and small things that made great gatekeepers great.

偉大な門将は不思議な救出業績ではなく、小さなことや細部を重視して成功する。（ティム?ハワード米国代表GK）

毎日一言

2.He could just about see the little man behind the counter.

彼はカウンターの後ろにいる小柄な男をかろうじて見ることができた。

3."I wish I had a little brother，"said Daphne wistfully.

「私は小さな弟がほしい」とダフニーは感傷的に言った。

4.マリアは子供の言葉で子供と話しています。

5.They were going to sail around the little island，against the tide.

彼らは島を回って潮に逆らって航行するつもりだ。