Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “petit” come from?

Petit comes from Old French petit, from Latin pitittus, from Latin piccus, from Latin picus meaning "magpie," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (s)peyk- with the suffix -kos.

petit (English): Petite: small, little; Petty, in its various...

Definitions

  1. Petite: small, little; Petty, in its various...

Ancestry of “petit”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishpetit—
2Middle FrenchPetit—
3Old Frenchpetitsmall, little; worthless; valueless; poor; of...
4Gallo-Romancepitittus—
Every word from Gallo-Romance pitittus →