Where does “pikkuneiti” come from?
pikkuneiti (Finnish) comes from Finnish pikku, from Finnish pieni, from Proto-Finnic peeni — little, small; fine.
Ancestry of “pikkuneiti”, step by step
pikkuneiti traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Finnish pikku
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Finnish | pikku | little, small; little old |
| 2 | Finnish | pieni | little, small; Third-person singular indicative... |
| 3 | Proto-Finnic | peeni | little, small; fine |
via Finnish neiti
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Finnish | neiti | miss |
| 2 | Proto-Finnic | neiti | girl, young woman |
| 3 | Proto-Uralic | nejde | girl |