| 释义 |
▪ I. petty, a. (n.1)|ˈpɛtɪ|
Forms: 4–7 pety, petti, 6–7 pettie, petie, pittie, (6 peti, pyty), 6– petty.
[In late ME. pety; phonetic spelling, after Fr. pronunciation, of petit, which finally took the place of the earlier form.]
A. adj.
†1. Small (in size or stature); below the ordinary or normal size. Obs. exc. in special collocations (see 5).
1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 84 And pouerte is a pety [B. petit] þyng apereþ nat to hus nauele. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 45 Go pety quaier, and war where thou appere. 1592Greene Def. Conny Catch Wks. (Grosart) XI. 68 The Ale-wife vnles she nicke her Pots and Conny⁓catch her guestes with stone Pottes and petty Cannes, can hardly paye her Brewer.
2. Of small importance, inconsiderable, insignificant, trivial; little-minded, ‘small’.
1581Mulcaster Positions Ep. Ded. (1887) 7, I know your Maiesties pacience to be exceeding great in verie petie arguments. 1582T. Watson Centurie of Loue Ep. Ded., In turning out this my pettie poore flocke vpon the open common of the wide world. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. iv. i. 52 And I [was banished] for such like petty crimes as these. 1596― Merch. V. i. i. 12 Your Argosies with portly saile..Do ouer-peere the pettie Traffiquers. 1597–8Bacon Ess., Expence (Arb.) 54 Commonly it is lesse dishonourable to abridge pettie charges then to stoupe to pettie gettings. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. Disc. ix. 124 Extirpate petty curiosities of apparell, lodging, diet. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. ccxiii, His birth perhaps some petty village hides. 1713Steele Guard. No. 20 ⁋8 Our petty animosities. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Denham Wks. II. 81 Most of these petty faults are in his first productions. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. II. 112 Those petty evils which make prosperous men miserable. 1871R. Ellis Catullus i. 4 You of old did hold them Something worthy, the petty witty nothings. 1875Whitney Life Lang. viii. 142 It is rather petty to link such an element to the name of an Italian doctor. 1890Gross Gild Merch. I. 149 General dealers in petty wares.
3. a. Of persons or things in expressed or implied comparison with others: Minor, inferior; of secondary rank or importance; subordinate; on a small scale.
Sometimes hyphened or combined with a n. as petyking, petifalconer, pettie-inne, petty-saint, petty-sphere, etc. See esp. Petty Bag, petty canon, and the others mentioned in 5.
1523in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 328 The marchant cheapell of the pittie rode [crucifix] within the cathedral chirch. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 22 The principall braunches, the vij gyftes of the holy goost; the iiij pety braunches, the iiij cardynall vertues. 1552in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. xvi. 313 Suspicious men..as shalbe thought to bee petie pickers. 1570Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 204/2 He [Edgar] being at Chester, viii. kinges (called in histories Subreguli) to wit, petykings, or vnderkings, came and did homage to him. 1570Levins Manip. 112/7 Petie, secundarius. 1575Turberv. Falconrie 354 The peti⁓falconers and novices which know not what it meaneth. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 284 Aden and Zibyth, two pettie Kingdomes in Arabia. 1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, ccxxxiv, Now the Machine moues on euery wheele, And Petty-Sphærs contribute to the whole. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. vi. §14 William Wickwane, Arch-Bishop of York..esteemed a petty-saint in that Age. 1659Wood Life Mar. (O.H.S.) I. 273 An alehouse or pettie-inne for travellers, called The Checquer. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xvii. (1848) 268 Those petty Thefts for which Judges condemn Men. 1711Addison Spect. No. 70 ⁋4 The Barons, who were then so many petty Princes. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 392, I fly from petty tyrants to the throne. 1831J. W. Croker in C. Papers 5 Apr., Petty shopkeepers and small farmers. 1879Froude Cæsar viii. 70 Mithridates was once more a petty Asiatic prince existing upon sufferance.
†b. petty (petit, pety-) school: a school for little boys [see B. 1]; a junior or preparatory school. So petty (petty-) form, the junior form.
1555–6Louth Rec. (1891) 140 Item paide..at suche tyme as the petie scole was in making, xls. [1580Fulke Martiall Confut. iv. Wks. (Parker Soc.) II. 163 Which..he would not have done in his petite School at Winchester.] 1590in Hakluyt's Voy. (1904) VI. 361 All private and pety-schooles. 1674Will J. Storie (MS.), Poor children taught at a petty school..till they can go to Wakefield Free School. 1718Hickes & Nelson J. Kettlewell i. ii. 9 He was first put to a petty School. 1746Brit. Mag. 112 He was placed..near the Bottom of the Petty-Form. 1818Bentham Ch. Eng. 116 The career..from the petty form at Eton or Westminster, up to the examining Chaplain's study.
†4. repr. F. petit, in petty master = petit-maître; petty nephew, petty son = great-nephew, grandson. Obs.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xxiv. §32 One being Petty Nephew, the other Grand-child of Francis the first. 1625Lisle Du Bartas, Noe 124 Joktan, the double Pety-son of Sem, that is whose double grandfather Sem was. 1707Reflex. upon Ridicule 200 A sort of Petty Master, that thinks himself very Modish.
5. In special collocations, as petty apartheid, apartheid as exercised in everyday life; racial segregation in its trivial applications (see apartheid); petty average: see quots. and average n.2 2; † petty boy: see quot.; † petty brain = brainlet; † petty budget, a small bag; applied attrib. to a lawyer; cf. petifactor, pettifogger; petty cash, small cash items of receipt or expenditure; also attrib., esp. petty cash-book; † petty coy = petty-cotton: see cotton n. 7, and quot.; petty custom, -s, duty charged upon goods coming to market: see parva custuma in custom n. 4; petty dancers, the Northern Lights; petty exchange: see quot.; † petty farm, the farming of the petty customs; † petty gladen, obs. name of Gladiolus; † petty John, a small point; petty orders = minor orders: see order n. 6; petty pan, a small pan (with various local definitions); † petty panic, Turner's name for Canary-grass, Phalaris canariensis; petty-point Sc., some kind of stitch, ? = tent-stitch; petty rice = quinoa; † petty watch, an old name of coast-guards; petty weal, a petty state, province, etc. [suggested by common weal]; † petty-world, a microcosm. Also Petty Bag, petty canon, petty captain, petty god, petty officer, q.v. as Main words; and petty cape, chapman, -woman, constable, juror, jury, larceny, sergeanty, -try, session, singles, tally, tithe, treason, view, and names of plants, as petty cotton, madder, morel, mugwort, mullein, spurge, whin: for which see these ns.
1966Cape Argus 8 Apr. 14 While separate development proceeds so slowly, the Government, for home consumption, makes demonstrations of strength on the *petty apartheid front. 1971Rand Daily Mail 10 June 12 You can just imagine what it feels like when you have to use a lift which is marked ‘Goods only’; when you have to wait for the train in a cage-like sort of place, packed like sardines; when you have to buy food at a snack bar only through a window at the back. I think all these are what a sound mind can classify as petty apartheid. 1974Black Panther 9 Feb. 15/4 Last week the Johannesburg City Council announced measures to eliminate what is called here ‘petty apartheid’. These are practices of discrimination against the city's Blacks and coloreds not imposed by national law. 1977Time 27 June 20/1 There have been some changes in ‘petty apartheid’. Whites boast that ‘international’ hotels have been opened to blacks, and that blacks now participate in white sports, which has great symbolic meaning.
1848Arnould Mar. Insur. iii. v. (1866) II. 829 Small charges occurring regularly in the usual course of the voyage..are called *petty averages. 1865[see average n.2 2]. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Petty average, small charges borne partly by a ship, and partly by a cargo, such as expenses of towing, &c.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 292/1 A *Petty Boy, or a Shoomakers petty Boy..Instruments belonging to the Cordwiners Occupation: and are used generally for their burnishing and smoothing down the Stitches, and to pair pieces of Leather upon.
1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. iii. Introd. 127 The contained [parts] are the Brain, the *Petty-brain, and the Marrow.
c1550Wyll of Deuyll (1825) B iv, To euery of these *Pety bouget men of law and Tearmers, a couple of Geldynges.
1834J. Bowring Min. Mor., Perseverance 139 Jonas kept what is called the *petty cash in the merchant's counting-house, that is, he was charged with the payment of all the small sums for the ordinary expenses of the business. 1839Dickens Let. c 18 Feb. (1965) I. 509 He was not quite correct in the facts of the ‘petty cash’ story, the realities of which are far more honorable to the noble fellows concerned. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Petty Cash-book, a book for entering small receipts and payments. 1886A. W. Thomson Text-bk. Princ. & Pract. Bk.-Keeping iii. 37 When a number of small payments need to be made..a separate book called the Petty Cash Book is kept for recording such payments. 1922Joyce Ulysses 171 He went towards the window and, taking up the petty cash book, scanned its pages. 1974Terminol. Managem. & Financial Accountancy (Inst. Cost and Managem. Accountants) 57 Petty cash book, a separate record of small cash receipts and payments.
1736Ainsworth, *Petty coy (herb), Gnaphalium minus [app. meaning Filago minima].
1442Rolls of Parlt. V. 63/1 Your grete Customes and *petit Customes there. 1450Ibid. 188/1, xl li. in the pety Custume of London. 1482Ibid. VI. 200/2 Of oure petite Custume in oure Port of London. 1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6154/1 An Act..for discontinuing Payment of the Petty-Port Customs [at Edinburgh].
1635L. Foxe Voy. N. West (Hakl. Soc.) II. 313 At clocke 12, there was *Pettiedancers or henbanes (as some write them) North in the firmament, betokening a storme, to follow within 24 houres. 1888A. H. Markham in Gd. Words Feb. 118/2 These luminous patches occasionally seen with auroræ are, I think, the same so frequently alluded to by the old navigators as the ‘pettie dancers’.
1682J. Scarlett Exchanges 2 This Exchange is two-fold, viz. An Exchanging of Monyes for Monyes, one Coyn or sort for another; and a giving of Money upon Exchange for a Bill, &c. The former of these is *Petty Exchange, the latter Real.
1707E. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. iii. iii. 384 Commissioners..have the whole Charge and Management of all her Majesty's Customs, (the *Petty-farms excepted) in all the Ports in England.
1601Holland Pliny II. 92 The *pety Gladen or Sword⁓grasse. Ibid. 99 In the range of these bulbous and onion⁓rooted plants, some place the root of Cyperus, that is to say, of Gladiolus (i. Petie-gladen, Flags, or Sword-wort).
1640Brome Sparagus Gard. ii. iii, I have a many small jests, *petty Johns, as I call 'hem. 1644–7Cleveland Char. Lond. Diurn., etc. Poems, etc. (1677) 104 It is a Maxim..That the only way to win the Games is to play Petty Johns. 1679V. Alsop Melius Inquirend. ii. v. 291 To call them [i.e. Christ's institutions] the Circumstantials, the Accidents, the minutes, the Punctilios, and, if need be, the Petty-Johns of Religion.
1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v. Orders, The *petty, or minor Orders, are four: viz. those of door-keeper, exorcist, reader, and acolyth... Those in petty orders may marry without any dispensation.
1714Mrs. Manley Adv. Rivella 62 The Daughter of a poor *Petty-pan Merchant. 1825Jamieson, Pettie-pan, s. a white-iron mould for pastry. 1905Eng. Dial. Dict. Suppl., Petty pon, a small, round, earthenware pan in which mince-pies and other tarts are baked.
1562Turner Herbal ii. 85, I haue as yet heard no English name of Phalaris, but for lak of a better name it may be called *peti panik, of the likenes that it hath with the ryght panic.
1632in 14th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. iii. 235 Ane waistcott of grein taffitie, wroght with *pettie-point. 1825Jamieson, Pettie-point, a particular kind of sewing stitch.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Petty-rice, a name in Peru for the white seeds of Chenopodium quinoa.
1372Rolls of Parlt. II. 314/2 De chescun Hundred des Countees sur la Mer sont trovez sur la garde de Mier pur Enemys aliens certeins gentz q'est appelle *Petti-Wacche.
1628Wither Brit. Rememb. 202 Should the Common⁓wealth herself oppose These corporations..it would scarce obtaine That pow'r which could these *Petty-weales restraine.
1605Camden Rem. 7 A *pettie world within himselfe.
B. n.
1.
†a. A little boy at school; a boy in a lower form; a junior schoolboy. Obs.
1589Nashe Martins Months minde To Rdr. 7 Some of them..were the Petties and Punies of that schoole, whereof old Martin was the master. 1600Holland Livy iii. xliv. 117 There were the schooles for peties kept, of reading and writing. 1607Stat. in Hist. Wakefield Gram. Sch. (1892) 71 This schole is not ordained for petties but for grammarians. 1617Minsheu Ductor, A Petie in his crosse rowe..an ABC scholler. a1670Hacket Abp. Williams i. (1692) 37 Mr. Lamb..came by holding fast to Fortune's middle finger, from a schoolmaster that taught petties, to a Proctor in Christian Courts. 1855Thackeray Newcomes iv, A junior ensign being no more familiar with the Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards..than the newly-breeched infant in the Petties with a senior boy in a tailed-coat.
fig.1613Jackson Creed ii. xiv. §8 The School of Christ, in which all in this life are but ‘parvuli’, petties or children. 1619W. Sclater Exp. 1 Thess. (1630) 26 Euen of such petties amongst vs, Papists haue taken notice so farre, as by them to make our Church odious.
b. A school or class for small boys.
c1810W. Hickey Mem. (1913) I. ii. 13, I however soon got out of that disgraceful and ignorant form, passed with rapidity and eclat the under and upper petty, and entered into the upper first. 1961R. Williams Long Revolution 133 The ‘petties’ or ‘ABCs’ were proper schools.
2. A privy or latrine; = little-house (little a. 13).
Widely prevalent in familiar use.
1848M. J. Stanley Let. 27 Sept. in N. Mitford Ladies of Alderley (1938) 206 If these houses had been built by his Lordship every one would have had his petty, at all events dividing the odour. 1961E. Williams George i. vii. 87 It was a nice little cottage.., with a lot of neglected garden and a tumbledown petty. Ibid. ii. xi. 151 Mam..hated the petty for being attached to next door's.
▪ II. petty, n.2|ˈpɛtɪ|
Familiar abbrev. of petticoat n.
1915T. Burke Nights in Town 63 There..was young Beryl, superintending her aunt's feverish struggles with paint and powder-jars, frocks, petties,..and wraps. 1939Joyce Finnegans Wake i. 87 The litigants..were egged on by their supporters in the shape of betterwomen with bowstrung hair of Carrothagenuine ruddiness, waving crimson petties and screaming from Isod's towertop. 1971Guardian 24 Aug. 9/1 The language of lingeries..petties and pretties, and frillies. |