perpaucus Latin · revision 32335

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=190–159 BC, Terence|origins=ine-pro *peh₂u-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [pɛrˈpau̯.kʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [perˈpaːu̯.kus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''perpaucus''' (feminine perpauca, neuter perpaucum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|per-|paucus|t1=very|t2=few, little]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan traces [[m|la|paucus]] to [[itc-pro|*pauko-|t=few]] and the root [[ine-pro|*peh₂u-]], which also underlies [[m|la|parvus|t=small]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Terence has it first, in the ''Eunuchus'' of very few men, and split by another word in the ''Hecyra'': “how very few lovers you would find”.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means very few, or in the singular very little, and the neuter plural perpauca is very few things, as when Horace speaks of saying very little.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) The TLL finds it only in single passages in poetry, in Terence, Lucretius and Horace's ''Satires'', but often in the prose of Cicero, Caesar and Livy, and rarely after them;^(TLL) Columella has a superlative.^(TLL) Manuscripts sometimes confuse it with [[paucus]].^(TLL) Church Latin glosses it very little or very few.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 190–159 BC – Terence of very few men.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of very few changes.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of very few senators.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella uses a superlative.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Very [[m|en|few]]; very little.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Neuter plural as a noun: very few things.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[perpauculus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}