wee

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | 478 words | Copyright

wee sb. orig. chiefly in a little wee, †a small thing or quantity; a short time XIII; adj. extremely small, tiny XV. north. ME. we(i), repr. OE. (Angl.) wēġ(e), (WS.) wǣġ(e) weight, rel. to weġan WEIGH; the use appears to have originated in such a phr. as a little wee thing ‘a small amount of a thing’, similar to a bit thing ‘a bit of a thing’. The adj. use has been current in southern Eng. since c.1600.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

T. F. HOAD. "wee." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "wee." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-wee.html

T. F. HOAD. "wee." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-wee.html

Learn more about citation styles