few
See also: Few
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English fewe, from Old English fēaw (“few”), from Proto-West Germanic *fau, from Proto-Germanic *fawaz (“few”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”).
Cognate with Old Saxon fā (“few”), Old High German fao, fō (“few, little”), Old Norse fár (“few”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍃 (faus, “few”). Also related with Latin paucus (“little, few”) and pauper (“poor”), from which latter English poor and pauper; see these.
Pronunciation
[edit]Determiner
[edit]few (comparative fewer or less, superlative fewest or least)
- (preceded by another determiner) An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
- 2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
- No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
- There are a few cars (=some, but a relatively small number) in the street.
- Quite a few people (=a significant number) were pleasantly surprised.
- I think he's had a few drinks. [This usage is likely ironic.]
- (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
- There are very few people who understand quantum theory.
- I was expecting a big crowd at the party, but very few people (=almost none) turned up.
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
- Your men are valiant but their number few,
And cannot terrifie his mightie hoſt, […]
- (meteorology, of clouds) Obscuring one to two oktas (eighths) of the sky.
- Tonight: A few clouds. Increasing cloudiness overnight.
- NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomena aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomena are surface-based, such as fog.
- (meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.
Usage notes
[edit]- Few is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart little is used with uncountable nouns.
- Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, a few could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few in this context means a very very small percentage but far more than the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it in its use with much much smaller numbers.
- Few is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license negative polarity items. For example, anything usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with few.
- Few alone emphasises smallness of number, while a few emphasises some. For example: He's a dull man with few ideas; He's a clever man with a few ideas.
Synonyms
[edit]- little (see usage)
Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]- a fair few
- a few
- a few clowns short of a circus
- a few fries short of a Happy Meal
- a few roos loose in the top paddock
- a few spanners short of a tool box
- a good few
- cover-few
- few and far between
- few cards short of a full deck
- few cards shy of a full deck
- few-flowered sedge
- few sandwiches short of a picnic
- few-shot
- few-shot learning
- have a few
- have a few too many
- in a few shakes
- man of few words
- pull a few strings
- quite a few
- some few
- to name a few
- woman of few words
- you've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]indefinite, usually small number
|
small number
|
meteorology: obscuring 1-2 eighths of the sky
Pronoun
[edit]few
Antonyms
[edit]Translations
[edit]few people, few things
References
[edit]- Meteorology (both senses)
Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Determiner
[edit]few
- Alternative form of fewe
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *peh₂w-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/uː
- Rhymes:English/uː/1 syllable
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English determiners
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Meteorology
- English pronouns
- English indefinite pronouns
- English three-letter words
- English positive polarity items
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English determiners