few

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English fewe, from Old English fēaw (“few”), from Proto-West Germanic *fau, from Proto-Germanic *fawaz (“few”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old Saxon fā (“few”), Old High German fao, fō (“few, little”), Old Norse fár (“few”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍃 (faus, “few”). Also related with Latin paucus (“little, few”) and pauper (“poor”), from which latter English poor and pauper; see these. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /fjuː/, /fɪu̯/ (UK) IPA(key): [fjʉː], [fjʉ͡u] Rhymes: -uː Homophone: phew (phonemically) === Determiner === few (comparative fewer or less, superlative fewest or least) (preceded by another determiner) An indefinite, but usually small, number of. (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of. (meteorology, of clouds) Obscuring one to two oktas (eighths) of the sky. NOAA definition of the term few clouds: An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomena aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomena are surface-based, such as fog. (meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated. ==== Usage notes ==== Few is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart little is used with uncountable nouns. Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, a few could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few in this context means a very very small percentage but far more than the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it in its use with much much smaller numbers. Few is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license negative polarity items. For example, anything usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with few. He didn't do anything to help us. *He did anything to help us. (ungrammatical) Few people did anything to help us. *A few people did anything to help us. (ungrammatical, since a few is a different unit of meaning from few and does not license NPIs) Few alone emphasises smallness of number, while a few emphasises some. For example: He's a dull man with few ideas; He's a clever man with a few ideas. ==== Synonyms ==== little (see usage) ==== Antonyms ==== many ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== paucity poor ==== Translations ==== === Pronoun === few Few people, few things. ==== Antonyms ==== many ==== Translations ==== ==== References ==== Meteorology (both senses) NOAA Glossary: f === Anagrams === Fwe, WEF == Middle English == === Determiner === few alternative form of fewe