/ˈpɛt.i/, /ˈpɛt.i/, [ˈpʰɛɾ.i]
OriginThe adjective is derived from Middle English peti, pety (“little, small; minor”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman petit, Middle French petit, and Old French peti, petit, pitet (“young; little, small; inferior; insignificant”) (modern French petit), ultimately of imitative origin. It is no longer thought that the word is derived from Celtic. Doublet of petit and petite.
The noun is derived from the adjective.
- historicalOf or relating to the lowest grade or level of school; junior, primary.
“Friends are separated for long portions of time even while they live; at last they take their leave for ever: although, I remember, when you left me in the petty form at Westminster, I soon afterwards”
“This finishes their education in the under school, in which they have now been three years and a half, and they are next moved into the upper, and probably at the age of ten or eleven; six or seven be”
“[T]he feoffees should cause the boys to be put to some petty school to learn to read English till they attain 13, and to instruct them in some part of God's true religion.”
- Little or small in size.
“To morrow, and to morrow, and to morrow, / Creepes in this petty pace from day to day, / To the laſt Syllable of Recorded time: / And all our yeſterdayes, haue lighted Fooles / The way to duſty death.”
- Secondary in importance or rank; minor, subordinate.
“petty cash petty officer”
“3. Out[law]. […] My ſelfe vvas from Verona baniſhed, / For practiſing to ſteale avvay a Lady, / And heire and Neece, alide vnto the Duke. / […] / 1. Out[law]. And I, for ſuch like petty crimes as theſ”
“With his [Robert Brown's] assistant, Richard Harrison, a petty pedagogue, they inveighed against bishops, ecclesiastical courts, ceremonies, ordination of ministers, and what not; fancying here on ear”
- dialectal, euphemistic, informalAn outbuilding used as a lavatory; an outhouse, a privy.
“If these houses had been built by his Lordship every one would have had his petty, at all events dividing the odour & also having a chance that some of the occupiers would clean out—but a common occup”
“Cottages occupied by Betty Hines and others; petty in a very filthy state, wants walling. Two petties belonging to Mr. James Parr to be walled, and one next Thomas Wilkinson's to be removed further of”
“We have an evil in the excretal deposits, and in the ashes an antidote; but instead of applying the antidote, we keep the evil to itself, and suffer it to exercise its unmitigated power over the healt”
- historicalA class or school for young schoolboys.
“[…] I took my seat in what was denominated, "The Idle Class", that is, at the very bottom of the school, where all those who have not received some previous instruction in Latin are placed. I however ”
“[S]uch a difference of age between lads at a public school puts intimacy out of the question—a junior ensign being no more familiar with the commander-in-chief at the Horse-Guards; or a barrister on h”
- also, figuratively, in-plural, obsoleteA little schoolboy, either in grade or size.
“[S]ome of them, which were the Petties and Punies of that ſchoole, whereof old Martin [Marprelate] was the maſter; though then he was but as ſome blinde and obſcure pariſh Clarke that taught in the Be”
“As the maiden therefore vvas comming into the market place, (for there vvere the ſchools for peties kept, of reading and vvriting) the Decemvirs man (a broker to ſerve his maſters luſt) laid hold upon”
“The Free Grammar School, at Cartmel, was originally only a parochial seminary, under the superintendence of the churchwardens and sidesmen of the parish, who, for a series of years, hired a master to ”
Formspettier(comparative) · more petty(comparative) · pettiest(superlative) · most petty(superlative) · petties(plural) · Pettys(plural)