fewer

Origin:
before 900; Middle English fewe, Old English fēawe; cognate with Gothic fawai; akin to Latin paucus few, paulus little, pauper poor, Greek paûros little, few

Related forms

o·ver·few, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Fewer is always a great word to know.

So is ort. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

few (fjuː)

—*determiner*
1.	a. a small number of; hardly any: few men are so cruel
	b. (as pronoun; functioning as plural): many are called but few are chosen
2.	(preceded by a)
	a. a small number of: a few drinks
	b. (as pronoun; functioning as plural): a few of you
3.	informal a good few several
4.	few and far between
	a. at great intervals; widely spaced
	b. not abundant; scarce
5.	have a few, have a few too many to consume several (or too many) alcoholic drinks
6.	informal not a few, quite a few several

—n
7.	the few Compare many a small number of people considered as a class: the few who fell at Thermopylae

[Old English fēawa; related to Old High German fao little, Old Norse fār little, silent]



'fewness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

few

O.E. feawe (contracted to fea), from Gmc. *faw- (cf. O.N. far, Dan. faa, O.Fris. fe, O.H.G. foh "little," Goth. fawai "few"), from PIE *pau- "smallness" (cf. L. paucus "few, little," paullus "little," pauper "poor;" Gk. pauros "few, little," pais (gen. paidos) "child;" L. puer "child, boy," pullus "young

animal;" Oscan puklu "child;" Skt. potah "a young animal," putrah "son;" O.C.S. puta "bird;" Lith. putytis "young animal, young bird"). Always plural in O.E. Phrase few and far between attested from 1668. Unusual ironic use in quite a few "many" (1883), earlier a good few (1828).

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." [Winston Churchill, 1940]

Example sentences

There are no fewer than seven flagpoles for the running up of ideas.

While smaller colleges receive fewer government dollars, they still need to

track relevant legislation.

Smaller reserves and fewer missions have already caused divisions and public

fights between different groups of scientists.

Younger planetary surfaces revealed impacts by relatively fewer, smaller

projectiles.

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Matching Quote

"[On Harvard President Charles William Eliot's lamentation that the average Harvard graduate had fewer than two children:] That is quite enough. Harvard graduates do not always make the best fathers. Why should we be agitated over the too small families of the rich when there are so many children of the poor that are not cared for? The rich should make it their duty to raise up these children to a higher standard.... Men of the world hate to give up their tobacco, liquor, sports, clubs, their luxurious habits, their freedom from responsibility. They prefer to flock together and so women are compelled to do the same. President Eliot talks as though the young women were sitting around anxiously and aimlessly waiting for the graduates to come and get them. He would find, if he should make the proper investigation, that a class of women is being developed who are demanding a higher standard of morals in men than did those of past generations, and if they cannot get husbands who reach this standard they are making very satisfactory careers for themselves outside of marriage."

-Susan B. Anthony

fewer

few·er

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