Timeline for Superlative form of the adjective "little" for degree or intensity
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15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 19, 2021 at 23:51 | answer | added | herisson | timeline score: 0 | |
| Aug 19, 2021 at 19:08 | history | bumped | CommunityBot | This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed. | |
| Apr 21, 2021 at 20:32 | comment | added | Stuart F | It's already been stated on English Language Learners that it's little - lesser - least. ell.stackexchange.com/questions/820/… You can also check Random House here dictionary.com/browse/lesser | |
| Apr 21, 2021 at 18:27 | comment | added | Lambie | a lesser/greater quantity or amount: the least, the most. BUT NOT: lesser love in terms of having it. The word love is not the best example as it may give itself to being described in terms of intensity it does not in terms of amount. You end up having to say a greater amount of love, which sounds horrible (Chicago accent). | |
| Apr 21, 2021 at 18:11 | history | bumped | CommunityBot | This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed. | |
| Dec 22, 2020 at 15:43 | comment | added | Ram Pillai | I have heard teachers in India use little, less/lesser, least for positive, comparative and superlative degrees. Ref.englishclub.com/grammar/determiners-quantifiers-graded.htm; I know these may not suit the OP's question, though. | |
| Dec 22, 2020 at 15:04 | history | bumped | CommunityBot | This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed. | |
| Nov 22, 2020 at 13:41 | answer | added | Hefewe1zen | timeline score: 1 | |
| Nov 22, 2020 at 13:26 | comment | added | BoldBen | @KateBunting I'd say that that was true to a greater or lesser extent for the word 'little' in all its forms. It always seems to have that association to me. I get the impression that 'small' was gradually inserted between 'little' and 'petty' in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries displacing them both. I know that it existed before that but documents from before that time seem to use it less than 'little' and 'petty' and, even then, in the sense of 'slim' or 'narrow'.There is a folk song which has the phrase "his fingers being both long and small" which sounds almost impossible to modern ears. | |
| Nov 22, 2020 at 8:57 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | @BoldBen I didn't say that littlest didn't exist, but I associate it mainly with, as you say, sentimental references to small children or animals. | |
| Nov 22, 2020 at 1:24 | comment | added | BoldBen | @KateBunting 'Littlest' certainly exists in idiomatic speech. It is sufficiently familiar that there is a sentimental children's film and several TV series called The Littlest Hobo with a dog hero who is a cross between Lassie and Kwai Chang Caine from the 1970s Kung Fu series. | |
| Nov 21, 2020 at 17:44 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | 'Certainly, her love for him is lesser than her love for her mother' is antiquated (at best), unidiomatic. less. 'But her love for cousin Ignatius was least.' | |
| Nov 21, 2020 at 17:05 | comment | added | GJC | @KateBunting LESSER [comparative of little with least as superlative.] 1) adj. smaller, as in size, value, or importance: a lesser evil. 2) adv. less. wordreference.com/definition/LESS | |
| Nov 21, 2020 at 17:03 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | I doubt that there is one. Even for size, smaller and smallest would be more commonly used. | |
| Nov 21, 2020 at 16:36 | history | asked | GJC | CC BY-SA 4.0 |