petty

Etymology

From Middle English pety, from Middle French petit, English since the late 14th century. The disparaging meaning developed over the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛti/
• Homophone: Petty
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰɛɾi]
  • Homophones: Petty, pedi

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛti

Adjective

petty (comparative pettier or more petty, superlative pettiest or most petty)

1. (obsolete except in set phrases) Little, small, secondary in rank or importance.

   petty officer, petty cash

   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

     Like a petty god I walked about, admired of all.

2. Insignificant, trifling, or inconsiderable.

   a petty fault

   • February 2018, Robert Draper in National Geographic Magazine, They Are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet

     Later today in Finsbury Park, the cameras would spend hours panning across 35,000 festivalgoers in search of pickpockets, drunken brawlers, and other assorted agents of petty mischief.

3. Narrow-minded, small-minded.
4. Begrudging in nature, especially over insignificant matters.

   That corporation is only slightly pettier than they are greedy, and they are overdue to reap the consequences.

Noun

petty (plural petties)

1. (usually in the plural, obsolete) A little schoolboy, either in grade or size.
2. (now historical) A class or school for young schoolboys.
3. (dialect, euphemistic) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.

References

• "petty, adj. and n.", in the Oxford English Dictionary (2005), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• petty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• petty in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911