|
E 0682 PETITE
The word " petite " is a loanwordfrom French .
H 0679 ט
ו
ע
פ
Concept of root : smallness.
|
Hebrew word
|
pronunciation
|
English meanings
|
|
ט ו ע פ
|
pa‛uth
|
small;
little child
|
|
|
|
Related English words
|
petite , from French
|
|
|
Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
|
Languages
|
Words
|
Pronunciation
|
English meanings
|
Similarity in roots
|
|
Hebrew
|
ט ו ע פ
|
pa‛uth
|
small;
little child
|
p (‛) th
|
|
Latin
|
putus
petilus
|
putus;
petilus
|
boy;
thin, slim, smallish
|
p . t .
|
|
Italian
|
petit(t)o
|
petit(t)o
|
small
|
p . t .
|
|
French
|
petit
|
pěti
|
small
|
p . t . t
|
|
English
|
petite
|
|
petite
|
p . t . t
|
|
Dutch
|
peuter
|
peutěr
|
little child
|
p . t .
|
|
Welsh
|
pitû; pittú
|
|
small;
very small
|
p . t .
|
Hebrew *PA‛UTH , *PETĪ --- *PŪT, PĬT Indo-European
A rather surprising case of similar words. And behind it are things we do not know. The Hebrew word is Post Biblical and seems relatively isolated and not even a verb on the basis of this root is known to have been in use before Modern Hebrew. The Dutch word is totally without any known etymology. The final R anyway should not be part of its root.
Note:
- Latin "putus; puta = boy, girl" has via Italian led to English "putto", the cherubic childs so often represented in the fine arts. It also gave French, "pute" and "putain" besides Italian "puttana", that have meanings absolutely absent from Latin.
The basic message is that of "early youth", not of "procreation". If there is any relation with the words "puer; puera", that indicate non only children, but youngsters like modern "teenagers", such a relation lies very far back. And so many words have "PU" in their roots.
The word "petilus" is very little used and its etymology unclear. But it means something smallish or thin. It may well be a diminutive form of a word "*petus" but that does as such not exist. The concept of "thinness" being served by a word that means "little" is not uncommon. English "small" has a Dutch sister "smal" that means "narrow, thin" and a German sister that says "schmal" for "narrow, slim"
Note:
- Welsh, of which we have no direct knowledge, may be an extra indication that a root with the letters "P" and "T" for something small existed in Indo-European. We find it already in Latin, Germanic and Celtic. And then we see this Indo-European related to Hebrew. The various developments may not all be clear, but the common origin is there to be seen .
Some scholars consider Italian "petit(t)o" , like French "petit" and Catalan "petit" of Celtic origin . But they are just cognates, as shown by the existence of Old French "pite = small".
Note:
- Proto-Semitic. We have no evidence from other Semitic languages for a hypothesis for this root, that should regard a verb that has been coined or rather remade in modern Hebrew, with the root "P Ayin TH" found just in the referred Post Biblical noun .
Yet there is another root, that may be related : " פ ת ה , P T + accentuated vowel, patà", that means "to be inexperienced, ingenuous, naive, simple, easy to seduce, foolish". The adjective is " פ ת י , P T Y, petì = inexperienced, ingenuous", that perhaps has led to a secondary meaning of "simpleton" . "Youth" comes back into in the picture in the related Arabic word "fatan", that says "young man, slave, hero" in a tris of messages of what a young male can become. This leads to a " P TH " and/or "P T " for small or still young human beings. In our comparison we add this "petì" to the known Hebrew word "pa‛uth".
It has to be remarked that the basic meaning of this root "P T H" is that of "being inexperienced", rather than "being young" or "being small".
Note:
- Indo-European, " P W T ". An existing hypothesis is "* P A U T- ". This would then be based on a root "*P W T", in which the "A" is used for pronunciation of the "W" as consonant. This different from for example Latin where the "*W" is pronounced as the vowel "Ū".
Old Indian presents "putra- = child", but also "son", that may be an added meaning that also led to the addition of a consonant "R", as found in words for "father" and "mother". "Young" did not have this "R" in pota-. The indication is "P O T".
Avestan "puthra-" can be compared with Old Indian "putra-.
Slavic has a hypothesis "*pŭtā".
Baltic, rather near to Latin in this case, has a hypothesis "*put-" with various continuations.
Celtic is amazingly similar to Hebrew with a hypothesis "*paut-", that might even have to be "*pauth-", as suggested, after the usual elimination of the initial P", by Middle Irish "uaith-ne". Then we see in the Table Welsh "pitù = small".
Indo European, " P I T ". The French and Italian words "petit" and "petito" have doubled the consonant " T ". They are related to the abovementioned Latin "petilus" that has a consonant "L" introduced, perhaps to accentuate the idea of smallness. There is no reason to suppose, as some do, that French "petite" comes from Celtic ( Welsh pitu), as Old French still had "pite = small".
It is probable that Indo-European had diversified between the root "*P W T" = P Ū T for "young child" and "*P Ĭ T-" for an adjective "small".
|
|
|
| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 15/11/2012 at 18.05.41 |
|