puny

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈpjuni/ UK /ˈpjuːni/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
small, weak, or insignificant

His puny efforts made no dent in the enormous pile.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · small, weak, or insignificant weak feeble frail slight undersized insignificant paltry

Opposites

strong robust sturdy powerful mighty

Word family

Derived forms puninesspunily

Related forms puisne

Simplified etymology

Puny, recorded from the mid-16th century, comes from French puisne, formed from puis, “afterwards,” and né, “born.” Puisne originally meant a younger person.

Etymology

From Anglo-French puisné and Old French puisné ('born later, younger'), from puis ('afterward') + né ('born'), from Latin natus. The sense shifted from 'junior' to 'small, weak'.

puisné Old French post Old English natus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# puny

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈpjuni/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈpjuːni/

## Meanings
1. small, weak, or insignificant

## Examples
- His puny efforts made no dent in the enormous pile.

## Synonyms
- weak
- feeble
- frail
- slight
- undersized
- insignificant
- paltry

## Antonyms
- strong
- robust
- sturdy
- powerful
- mighty

## Derived Forms
- puniness
- punily

## Related Forms
- puisne

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: puisné
- Root: post
- Root: natus

## Etymology
From Anglo-French puisné and Old French puisné ('born later, younger'), from puis ('afterward') + né ('born'), from Latin natus. The sense shifted from 'junior' to 'small, weak'.

## AI Etymology
Puny is from Anglo-French puisné and Old French puisné ('born later, younger'), from puis ('afterward') + né ('born'), from Latin natus. The sense shifted from 'junior' to 'small, weak'. Important recorded forms include puisné (Old French), post (Latin), and natus (Latin). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers small, weak, or insignificant. The wider family includes derived forms such as puniness and punily and related words such as puisne.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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