Etymograph

English

small

Small comes from Middle English smal ‘small, minuscule’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *smalaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smalaz1reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smal1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150smæl1‘narrow’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smal1‘small’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1594small1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English small
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto): “It small avails my mood.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smalazWiktionary, English smallreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smalWiktionary, English smallreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150smælWiktionary, English small‘narrow’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smalWiktionary, English small‘small’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1594smallWiktionary, English small. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto): “It small avails my mood.”

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Today it means

adj Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “small”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *smalaz / small