--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" <josimo70@...> wrote:
> What are the origins of Neolatin words for small: Pequeno
(Portuguese), Pequen~o (SPanish), Piccolo (Italian) and Petit
(French). Is there any relation between them.
>
> Antenor Nascentes' Etymological Dictionary points for Vulgar Latin
*picuinus, *pittittus, *picculus, maybe from Celtic *pik-/pit-.
>
>
> Joao SL
**********
Posner "Romance Languages" says "probably all of onomatopoeic
origin". It's hard to see how onomatopoeia in the strict sense can
apply to a concept like "small". Buck "Synonyms"
says " 'parvus' ... replaced in pop. Lat. and the Romance languages
by a variety of obscure forms apparently based on expressive
syllables like *pikk, *pitt, *pits, etc." "Expressive" does make a
bit more sense than "onomatopoeic", but still doesn't seem very
satisfactory to me. I suppose if *pikk is expressive in pop. Lat.,
then Irish 'becc' (etym. dub. Buck) and Celtic *pik-/pit-' are
expressive too. Seems like one of those problems not easily
resolved.
Dan Milton