niewielki

Old Polish

Alternative forms

  • niewielgi, niewieliki

Etymology

From nie- + wielki. First attested in the 15th century.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (10th–15th CE) /ɲɛvjɛlʲkiː/
  • IPA(key): (15th CE) /ɲɛvjɛlʲki/

Adjective

niewielki (diminutive niewieliczski)

  1. not big; small, little
    • De nativitate Domini - Pieśń o narodzeniu Pańskim, line 5:
      Bethleem, myastho nyewyelgye, myalo gosczye thedy mnogye
      [Betleem miasto niewielgie, miało goście tedy mnogie]
  2. not big; unimportant, nonsignificant, insubstantial
    • Middle of the 15th century, Rozmyślanie o żywocie Pana Jezusa, page 743:
      Rzekącz k temv, yzby yego czlovyeka vyna [yego] byla nyevyelyka
      [Rzekąć k temu, iżby tego człowieka wina jego była niewielika]

Descendants

  • Polish: niewielki
  • Silesian: niywielki

References

Polish

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish niewielki. By surface analysis, nie- + wielki. Compare Kashubian niewiôldżi.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɲɛˈvjɛl.ki/
  • (Middle Polish) IPA(key): /ɲɛˈvjɛl.ki/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛlki
  • Syllabification: nie‧wiel‧ki

Adjective

niewielki (comparative bardziej niewielki, superlative najbardziej niewielki)

  1. (litotes) not big; small, little
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:mały
    Antonym: wielki
  2. not big; unimportant, nonsignificant, insubstantial
    Synonyms: nieistotny; see also Thesaurus:mały
    Antonym: wielki

Declension

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), niewielki is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 40 times in scientific texts, 18 times in news, 10 times in essays, 12 times in fiction, and 4 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 84 times, making it the 760th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]

References

  1. Ida Kurcz (1990), niewielki”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 1, Kraków; Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 290

Further reading

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