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petit, a. (n.)
(† ˈpɛtɪt, ‖ pəti)
Also 6 petyt, 7 pettit; β. 5–6 petyte, 5–8 -ite, 7 pettite; γ. 7 peteet, -e.
[a. F. petit. fem. petite (11th c.) = Pr. and Cat. petit, OIt. petitto, pitetto (both in Florio, 1611). Found in Anglo-Fr. phrases or combs. from 13th c., and as an Eng. adj. in 14th c.; but before 1400 written also pety, later petty, which became the proper English form; but, beside this, petit continued in use, being still common in the 17th c., though little used in the 18th c., exc. as retained in legal phrases, or as influenced by modern French (in some phrases from which it still occurs). While it was still a living Eng. word the final t was pronounced, as shown by the frequent 16–17th c. spelling petite, -yte (in Eng. only a spelling-variant, not distinctively fem. as in Fr.). The stress varied; the alliteration and rhythm in Piers Plowman shows ˈpetit (as does the surname Pettit); while the spellings peteet, -eete, show final stress.
The origin of F. petit is uncertain: ‘the primitive type appears to have been *pittīttum or *pettīttum’ (Darmest.), and as there is no such form in L., many scholars think it a derivative of a Celtic root pett- ‘part, piece, bit’, whence also It. pezza, F. pièce, Eng. piece. Cf. Diez s.v. Pito, Thurneysen Keltoroman. s.v. Pezza, Körting (1901), stem pett-, No. 7106.]
A. adj.
†1. Of small size, small; also occas. Few or small in number. Obs.
α1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 242 Pouerte nis but a petit þinge appereth nouȝt to his naule. 1420E.E. Wills (1882) 46, 1 petit brase morter. 1569T. Norton To Q.'s deceived subjects N.C. D iij, The number is great agaynste you, infinitely exceedyng your petit multitude. 1665Needham Med. Medicinæ 193 That sort of petit Animals. 1671F. Phillips Reg. Necess. 356 Which declared the number of his Servants not to be small, petit, or inconsiderable. [1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. xv. (1858) 323 A really handsome man,..with..an erect though somewhat petit figure.]
β1567Drant Horace To his Bk. R viij, Stamering age to petyte laddes in corners al wil reede thee. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 113 Kishmy a pettite castle not farre from Tasques. 1650Fuller Pisgah i. xii. 40 Many other petite tracts of ground. 1671Grew Anat. Plants i. vii. §16 As in cutting a petite and Infant-Bean, may be seen.
γ1660tr. Amyraldus' Treat. conc. Relig. i. i. 6 The fortuitous concourse of infinite peteet Atomes. 1675H. Teonge Diary (1825) 114 At the south east corner of this peteete building.
†2. Of little importance or value; insignificant, trifling: = petty a. 2. Obs.
α1362Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 60 His pardoun In purgatorie is petit, I trouwe. 1554in Strype Eccl. Mem. III. xvi. 139 It was not meet..that the Bishop [Bonner] should debase himself to such petit Functions of Preaching. 1599Thynne Animadv. (1865) 52 But on these and suche petit matters, I will not nowe longe insiste. a1716South Serm. (1717) V. 492 Their grand Subject was Truth, and consequently above all petit Arts, and poor Additions. a1734North Lives (1826) III. 275 His name..confined to some petit cycle in a musty genealogy. 1759Dilworth Pope 99 [His] taste..was turned entirely towards the grand; he hated everything petit.
β1565Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 135, I passe by other petite faults. 1610R. Abbot Old Way 25 By a petite reason [marg. absurda ratiuncula] of Pelagius he was driuen to speake absurdly thereof. a1637B. Jonson Underwoods, Eupheme ix, In all her petite actions, so devote. 1691Wood Ath. Oxon. (1817) III. 1203 In translating..and other petite employments.
†3.
a. Subordinate, minor, on a small scale: = petty a.3. Sometimes as opposed to grand. Obs.
α1531Dial. on Laws Eng. ii. li. S v b, To scour the see of pyrates & petyt robbers of the see. 1552Huloet, Petit brybar, furcifer... Petit bribarye, latrocinium. a1661Fuller Worthies, Hereford. ii. (1662) 35 Milfred (a petit Prince of that Country). 1722J. Richardson Statues, etc. Italy 273 The Stiff, Petit Style of Painting, the Remnant of Gothicism. 1724Bp. Nicolson in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 335 All our pedlers and petit merchants are confederating..against the currency of them. [1897Genealog. Mag. Oct. 365 In it [manor court of Teignmouth] were anciently tried all petit cases relating to the inhabitants. ]
β1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 11 Kent was then divided into foure petite kingdomes. 1588― Eiren. iv. xx. 619 To deliuer the gaoles of..idle poor folkes, petite theeues, and some others. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage iii. ii. 196. 1641 Heylin Help to Hist. (1671) 4 Those inferiour and petite Kings, being in tract of time worn out.
b. Hence petit-bribing adj., practising ‘petit bribery’: cf. quot. 1552 in 3 α. Obs.
1634Canne Necess. Separ. 143 The petitbribing Sumner rideth foorth laden with excommunications.
4. In special collocations (rarely hyphened), as an earlier form or variant of petty: petit custom: see petty a. 5; Petit Bag, canon, captain, officer: see Petty Bag, petty canon, petty captain, petty officer; also, petit cape, chapman, constable, juror, jury, larceny, sergeanty, -try, sessions, treason.
‖5. In some mod. French collocations adopted in English, as petit battement (sur le cou-de-pied, sur le talon) (see quots. 1957); petit baume, a liquor distilled from Croton balsamiferum in the West Indies; petit beurre, a sweet butter biscuit; petit bleu, a telegram in France, esp. one sent by the pneumatic post in Paris; petit choux (see quot.); petit déjeuner, breakfast in France, and by extension, elsewhere; petit four, a small fancy cake, biscuit, or sweet, usu. served with the dessert course of a meal; also fig.; petit nègre (see quots.); petit nom, a pet-name; petit pain, a small bread roll; petit point (see quot.); petit poussin, a young chicken; petits paquets, name of a game of some kind; petits (erron. petit) pois, young sweet green peas; petits soins, small attentions or services [lit. small cares]; petit suisse, a cream cheese (see quot. 1966); petit tranchet (Archæol.), a small stone artefact whose blade is produced by transverse-flaking; petit verre, a glass of liqueur [lit. a small glass]. Also petit-maître, petit souper.
1914*Petit battement [see pas de chat s.v. pas 2]. 1930Craske & Beaumont Theory & Pract. Allegro in Classical Ballet 66 Bring the right foot sur le cou de pied devant and execute four petite battements devants (that is, beaten without passing). 1957G. B. L. Wilson Dict. Ballet 48 Petit Battement sur le Talon, lit. small beating on the heel, a movement in which the danseuse, on the point and supported by her partner, lightly beats the heel of the supporting foot with the sole of the working foot. Ibid., Petit Battement sur le Cou-de-pied, an exercise at the bar in which the dancer beats lightly with the working foot, which may be fully extended or partially relaxed, to the front and back of the cou-de-pied of the supporting leg.
1858Hogg Veg. Kingd. 658 The distilled plant furnishes the liquor called eau de mantes, or *petit baume, in the West Indies.
1906Mrs. Beeton's Bk. Househ. Managem. facing p. 1432 Biscuits... Cream Toast... Wine... *Petit Beurre. 1913C. Mackenzie Sinister St. I. i. ix. 130 They all sat down at midnight,..not at all too much tired to sip grenadine sucrée and to crunch Petit Beurre biscuits. 1937J. Betjeman Continual Dew 22 He gives his Ovaltine a stir And nibbles at a ‘petit beurre’. 1958I. Murdoch Bell ii. 39 She indicated a large biscuit tin... ‘No more Petit Beurre,’ Peter Topglass was saying meditatively to himself. 1967V. Nabokov Speak, Memory (rev. ed.) ii. 46 A couple of broken Petit-Beurre biscuits she had found on a plate. 1975Times 13 Mar. 14/7 An expensive-looking parcel..revealed a pound of petit beurre biscuits.
1908W. S. Maugham Magician x. 171 The note..was a *petit bleu sent off from the Gare du Nord. 1920D. H. Lawrence Touch & Go 7 It may be that coal-owners are like the petit bleu arrangement, a system of vacuum tubes for whooshing Bradburys about from one to the other. 1924W. J. Locke Coming of Amos xvi. 204 She had just finished dressing when a petit-bleu—a letter sent by pneumatic post, was delivered. 1933‘G. Orwell’ Down & Out vi. 44 An agency..sent me a petit bleu. 1978R. Grayson Murders at Impasse Louvain xvi. 113 He had sent her..a ‘petit bleu’ or message by the pneumatic telegraph.
1706Phillips, *Petits Choux, a sort of Paste for garnishing, made of fat Cheese, Flower, Eggs, Salt, etc. bak'd in a Pye-pan, and Ic'd over with fine Sugar.
1895E. Dowson Let. 9 Dec. (1967) 326 After a *petit déjeuner at the Crémerie I get hungry again. 1909W. J. Locke Septimus iii. 37, I skip afternoon tea and dinner and supper, and petit déjeuner. 1914R. Brooke Lett. (1968) 561 Up at 6 and bathe. Petit déjeuner of coffee and fruit 6.45. 1926F. W. Crofts Inspector French & Cheyne Mystery xv. 213 The 4.50 fr. for petit dejeuner suggested a fairly good hotel. 1936J. Buchan Island of Sheep xii. 228 The fashion of the household was for a skimpy petit déjeuner and then an elaborate midday meal. 1963N. Marsh Dead Water (1964) v. 125, I took my petit dejeuner in my room. 1972L. Bachmann Ultimate Act v. 39 Your petit déjeuner is waiting.
1884L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 172 We all went to Charbonnel..for iced coffees and *petits fours. 1898H. A. de Salis Housewife's Referee 266 Petits Fours, small fancy biscuits. 1904H. James Golden Bowl II. xlii. 367 Amerigo..selected for presentation to the other visitor a plate of petits fours. 1908[see crystallized ppl. a. 3]. 1948Good Housek. Cookery Bk. 59 Petits fours, very small fancy cakes, iced cakes and biscuits served at the end of the formal dinner. Crystallised fruits, and caramellised and fondant-coated fruits are often included in the petits fours. 1961[see kugelhupf]. 1970New Yorker 19 Sept. 31/1 The French served champagne and petits fours. 1974Publishers Weekly 25 Mar. 55/2 Reichler's little prose petit fours accompanying the book's 100-plus photos..are toothsome and on-the-nose.
1964E. Palmer tr. Martinet's Elem. Gen. Linguistics v. 156 ‘*Petit nègre’ is the nearest equivalent in French to pidgin. 1972J. L. Dillard Black English i. 22 Pidgin versions of French (still represented in West Africa by Petit Nègre) and English began developing in the factories. Ibid. iii. 78 Pidgin French (called Petit Nègre)..came to the New World at about the same time. 1974Times 7 Jan. 16/3 Many [immigrants] get by on a pidgin language which the French call ‘petit negre’.
1867O. Logan in Galaxy Aug. 442 ‘Well, you see,’ replied he, referring to her familiarly by her *petit nom, ‘Leo hates the leg business as much as anybody but, bless you, nothing else pays now-a-days; so what can she do? 1939W. Fortescue There's Rosemary lxxi. 368 After dinner she said gaily: ‘And now for your important business with B. D. (her petit nom for General Long).’
1841Thackeray in Fraser's Mag. June 718/2 I..swallow..the greater portion of my *petit pain, too, before my second dish arrives. 1924A. D. Sedgwick Little French Girl i. i. 3 The long buttered petits pains. 1963J. Creasey Depths vi. 47 Sitting on the terrace, eating croissants or petits pains. 1977E. Ambler Send no more Roses vii. 141, I had one of the petits-pains just delivered by the village bakery.
1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 32/1 Tent Stitch, this stitch is also known as ‘*petit point’ and ‘perlenstich’.
1902*Petit poussin [see milk chicken s.v. milk n. 10]. 1926–7Army & Navy Stores Catal. 69/1 Poultry..Petit Poussin (English)—each 3/-. 1927Daily Express 1 Apr. 5, English poultry is dear, but there are spring chicken and petits poussins, ducklings and plovers' eggs. 1961Harrods Food News 16/2 Poultry..English Petit Poussin.
1821M. Edgeworth Let. 19 Dec. (1971) 298 Went to the hall of the marble table and there played at *petits paquets (not time to describe) a great deal of running and laughing among pretty men and pretty maids. 1874L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 88 After tea we..played at Petit Pacquet in the field outside.
1820M. Edgeworth Let. 4 June (1979) 144, I give you one dinner..2d service—œufs au jus—*petits pois (stewed)—lettuce (ditto). 1855F. Duberly Jrnl. 21 Mar. in E. E. P. Tisdall Mrs. Duberly's Campaigns (1963) v. 134 We made purchases of chickens, carrots, petits pois verts and various other necessaries. 1916A. Bennett Lion's Share xi. 87, I shall like very much to hear the details of this story of petits pois. 1951Good Housek. Home Encycl. 591/1 Peas vary in size from the small ‘petit pois’ to large ones. 1952A. Grimble Pattern of Islands 81 An exquisite little shoulder of frozen lamb, and some onions, and potatoes, AND a tin of real French petits pois. 1961J. Creasey Follow Toff xx. 171 He served the duck..the petit pois, tiny new potatoes.
1820A. Opie Tales of Heart IV. 292 Melville dined at home that day, and paid her voluntarily all those *petits soins which she had demanded of Arthur. 1825H. Wilson Mem. III. 50, I never..heard of one..who was so eternally au [sic] petits soins, and paid a woman the unremitting attention which I received from Worcester. 1847F. A. Kemble Let. 17 Dec. in Rec. Later Life (1882) III. 318 The ‘small attentions’, les petits soins of affection. 1857C. Kingsley Two Yrs. Ago II. iii. 59 Elsley showed Lucia no petits soins. 1959Times 31 Oct. 7/4 All the barometer ever gets in the way of petits soins is this allegedly deleterious tapping.
c1906A. John Let. in Listener (1972) 6 July 10/1 He is always asking for *petits-suisses which are unheard of in this country. 1951[see Gervais]. 1962J. Braine Life at Top iii. 53 He selected a piece of Gorgonzola, then..pointed out a petit Suisse. 1966P. V. Price France: Food & Wine Guide 284 Petit Suisse, a small, round, fresh cream cheese, evolved by a farmer's wife..near Gournay, about the middle of the nineteenth century. 1979H. McCloy Smoking Mirror ii. 12 A delicious cream cheese called petit suisse.
1939W. B. Wright Tools & Man ix. 76 The microliths are predominantly trapezes or *petit tranchets for use as arrow heads. 1949Proc. Prehist. Soc. XV. 127 A flint assemblage including petit-tranchet derivative arrowheads and one leaf-arrowhead. 1954S. Piggott Neolithic Cultures ii. 44 An arrowhead of the ‘derived petit-tranchet’ type. 1963H. N. Savory in Foster & Alcock Culture & Environment iii. 33 In South Wales, the main overlap of this new element was with the Western Neolithic rather than the Beaker Culture, as is shown by the regular appearance of petit-tranchet derivatives in surface collections where leaf arrowheads predominate.
a1855C. Brontë Professor (1857) I. viii. 141 They proposed a ‘*petit verre’, I declined. 1860Once a Week 23 June 606/2 He must be an unfortunate Frenchman indeed who cannot contrive to get a bouillon and a petit verre at the railway station. 1862Thackeray Philip xix, He summoned the waiter, and paid for his petit verre. 1895Cornh. Mag. Nov. 5211 [He] sipped his petit verre. 1939Auden & Isherwood Journey to War 292 Self-confident among the laughter and the petits verres.
B. n.
†1. A little boy in a grammar-school; a junior schoolboy. Also transf. Obs.
1460–70Ipswich Sch. Reg. in Trans. R. Hist. Soc. (1902) XVI. 166 Petytis vocati Apeseyes and Song. 1531Elyot Gov. iii. xxv, Some..be as who sayeth petites and unethe lettered. 1534More Comf. agst. Trib. i. xix. Wks. 1165/2 A teacher of children (or as they call suche one in the grammer scoles) an vsher or a mayster of the petytes. 1571Fulke Confut. Popery 127 You haue discouered such a solemne secret to the yong petits of Popery. 1691tr. Emilianne's Observ. Journ. Naples 19 They..count them [classes] backward; for that which receives the Petits at first, is called the seventh Classis.
†2. A variety of domestic pigeon. Obs. rare.
1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Pigeon, Many sorts of Pigeons, such as Carriers,..Barbs, Petits, owls, spots [etc.]. |