parvus

Alternative forms

• parvos (Old Latin)

Etymology

From Old Latin parvos, from Proto-Italic *pauros (“few, small”) with sonority hierarchy-related metathesis, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂u-rós, suffixed form of *peh₂w-. Cognate with Ancient Greek παῦρος (paûros), Old Armenian փոքր (pʻokʻr), and the Germanic cognates under Proto-Germanic *fawaz.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpar.u̯us/, [ˈpäru̯ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpar.vus/, [ˈpärvus]

Adjective

parvus (feminine parva, neuter parvum, comparative minor, superlative minimus); first/second-declension adjective

1. small, little, puny

   Synonym: minutus

   Antonyms: grandis, magnus, adaequātus

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 6.205–208:

     prōspicit ā templō summum brevis ārea Circum,
     est ibi nōn parvae parva columna notae:
     hinc solet hastā manū bellī praenūntia mittī,
     in rēgem et gentēs cum placet arma cāpī.

     Visible from the temple [is] a short open space, [and] the summit of the Circus [Maximus]. There [stands] a small column of no small renown: From this place the custom is to hurl by hand a spear, foretelling of war against a king and his people, [when] it is proper [that] with arms [they are] to be taken.
     (With a symbolic hurling of a spear – originally into enemy territory, later within Rome itself – a fetial gave formal declaration of war.)

2. cheap, petty, trifling, ignorable, unimportant

Noun

parvus m (genitive parvī); second declension

1. child

   ā parvō/ ā parvīs/ ā parvolō ― since childhood

Related terms

• parum
• paucus
• paulus
• pauper
• puer

Descendants

References

• “parvus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “parvus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• parvus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• parvus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • from youth up: a puero (is), a parvo (is), a parvulo (is)
    
  • important results are often produced by trivial causes: ex parvis saepe magnarum rerum momenta pendent
    
  • a deep, high, thin, moderate voice: vox gravis, acuta, parva, mediocris
    
  • to be satisfied with a little: paucis, parvo contentum esse
    
  • to buy cheaply: parvo, vili pretio or bene emere
    
  • a thing costs much, little: aliquid magno, parvo stat, constat
    
• Online Latin dictionary, Olivetti