parvus

• parvos (Old Latin)

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.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpar.wʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpar.vus]

parvus (feminine parva, neuter parvum, comparative minor or parvior, superlative minimus or parvissimus or minerrimus or minimissimus, adverb parvē); first/second-declension adjective

1. small; little; puny

   Synonym: minūtus

   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

• In Classical Latin, parvus has a suppletive comparative minor and superlative minimus, which remain the standard forms in Latin literature of all time periods. The analogical forms parvior and parvissimus can be found sporadically in texts from the Late Latin period onwards.
• The superlative has a number of rare collateral variants, which all date to Late Latin.

First/second-declension adjective.

parvus m (genitive parvī, feminine parva); second declension

1. little boy

   ā parvō/ ā parvīs/ ā parvolō ― since childhood

Second-declension noun.

• “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, 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^[1], 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