petite

See also: Petite and pétite

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French petite f, feminine of petit m (“small, little”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈtiːt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt

Adjective

petite (comparative more petite, superlative most petite)

1. (especially of a woman) Fairly short and of slim build.
2. (clothing) Of small size; intended for small-framed adult women.
3. Small, little; insignificant; petty.
   • 1662, Galileo Galilei, translated by Thomas Salisbury, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems:

     The Earth, the Sun, and Stars, what things are they in nature? are they petite things not worth our notice, or grand and worthy of consideration?

Derived terms

• petite bourgeoisie
• petite perception

Related terms

• petite amie
• petitely
• petiteness

Translations

Of a woman: fairly short and of slim build

• Bulgarian: миньонка f (minjonka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 嬌小／娇小 (zh) (jiāoxiǎo)

• Finnish: siro (fi)
• French: menue (fr) f
• German: zierlich (de), zart gebaut
• Japanese: 幼い (ja) (osanai)
• Portuguese: mion
• Russian: миниатюрная (ru) (miniatjurnaja)

of women's clothing: of small size

• Finnish: pieni (fi)
• Russian: миниатюрная (ru) (miniatjurnaja)

small, little; insignificant; petty

• Bulgarian: дребен (dreben)
• Finnish: pieni (fi), pikkuinen (fi), pikkuruinen (fi), vähäinen (fi), mitätön (fi)
• Russian: ма́ленький (ru) (málenʹkij)

Noun

petite (plural petites)

1. (genetics) A mutant first discovered in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, forming small colonies when grown in the presence of fermentable carbon sources such as glucose.
   • 2005, Giorgio Bernardi, Structural and Evolutionary Genomics, page 39:

     The primary structure of the mitochondrial genomes of these petites had been previously determined […]

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “petite”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• Pettie, Piette

Esperanto

Adverb

petite

1. past adverbial passive participle of peti

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p(ə).tit/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /p(ə).tit/, /p(ə).t͡sɪt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

petite

1. feminine singular of petit

Latin

Verb

petite

1. second-person plural present active imperative of petō