Etymologically
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /smɔːl/, US also /smɑːl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English smal, inherited from Old English smæl (“slender, narrow, small”),[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *smalaz.[2][4] Its cognates are Old Frisian smel (“narrow”), Old Saxon smal, Dutch smal (“narrow”), Old High German smal (modern German schmal (“narrow, slender”)), Old Norse smali (“small cattle, sheep”) and Gothic 𐍃𐌼𐌰𐌻𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌰 (smalista, “smallest”).[2][3][5] Outside Germanic it is related to Ancient Greek μῆλον (mêlon, “sheep, goat”), Old Irish mil (“small animal”) and Old Church Slavonic малъ (malŭ, “small”),[2][5][6] and perhaps to Latin malus (“bad”),[2][5] perhaps from a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)melo- that Etymonline glosses “smaller animal”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Slender, thin, narrow: Old English smæl, recorded before 800, meant “slender, narrow” and “fine”.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “not large, of little size” had already developed in Old English,[3] and the old sense “narrow, slender” now survives mainly of the waist (about 1300) and of the small intestine.[3] Of children, “young”, is mid-13th century, and “little in degree or amount” late 13th.[3] “Trivial, unimportant” is mid-14th century,[3] “having little property or trade” 1746, and “mean, petty in spirit” 1824.[3] Of a wind it has meant “light, gentle” since 1542.[7] The noun meant a small person or animal in the early 13th century and the common people, as opposed to the great, about 1300,[3] and the small of the back is from the 1530s.[3] Small beer was weak beer in 1568, the sort drunk when water was unsafe,[2][8] and Iago's “chronicle small beer” in Othello (1604) gave the sense “trifles”.[2][8] Small fry was used of little fish by 1697 and of unimportant people by 1885,[2][3] and small talk is from 1751.[2][3] Etymonline dates small potatoes from 1924, but Word Origins cites Davy Crockett's fuller small potatoes and few in the hill from 1836.[3][8] Small is beautiful is the title of E. F. Schumacher's book of 1973.[8]

Timeline

  • before 800 – Old English smæl.[2]
  • before 899 – adverb smale, into small pieces.[2]
  • early 13th century – noun, a small person or animal.[3]
  • mid-13th century – of children, young.[3]
  • late 13th century – little in degree or amount.[3]
  • c. 1300 – of the waist, slender.[3]
  • mid-14th century – trivial, unimportant.[3]
  • c. 1370 – smallish (Chaucer).[2]
  • 1518 – smallpox.[2]
  • 1530s – the small of the back.[3]
  • 1542 – of wind, light, gentle.[7]
  • 1568 – small beer, weak beer.[2]
  • 1604 – small beer, trifles (Othello).[2]
  • 1697 – small fry, little fish.[2]
  • 1746 – having little property or trade.[3]
  • 1751 – small talk.[2][3]
  • 1824 – petty, mean in spirit.[3]
  • 1885 – small fry, unimportant people.[2][3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Little in size, number or amount.
  2. Of little importance; trivial: a small matter.
  3. Limited in scale: a small business.
  4. Of low status or little influence.
  5. Young, not fully grown: small children.
  6. Narrow in outlook; petty: a small mind.
  7. Made to feel humbled or belittled.
  8. Of a letter, lower case.
  9. Of drink, weak: small beer.

Adverb

  1. Into small pieces: chop it small.
  2. Softly, without force.

Noun

  1. The narrow part of something: the small of the back.
  2. smalls: small items of clothing, especially underwear.

Word family

  • smallish
  • smallness

Usage notes

Small is the general word among adjectives for being below average size, beside little, tiny, diminutive, minute and wee.[9] RHWU notes that smaller is used of the size of concrete things (smaller apples) and less of amount, value or degree (less courage).[10]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  10. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org