puțin

See also: put in, putin, and Putin

Romanian

Etymology

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

  • IPA(key): [puˈt͡sin]
  • (file)

Adjective

puțin m or n (feminine singular puțină, masculine plural puțini, feminine and neuter plural puține)

(determiner)

  1. a little, few, little
  2. some
  3. small (in quantity), little, reduced, meager

Declension

Adverb

puțin

  1. a little, few, a small amount
    Antonym: mult
    Amicii mei înțeleg numai puțin românește.
    My friends understand only a little Romanian.

Synonyms

Derived terms

References

  1. 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.
  2. http://www.dex.ro/pu%C8%9Bin
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