The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*peh₂w-“few, little; smallness”
- English todayMayhem Parva
From mayhem (noun) + Latin parva (the feminine singular form of parvus (“little”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, little; smallness”)), referring to village names in England such as Ashby Parva and Glen Parva. The term was coined by the British writer of detective fiction Colin Watson (1920–1983), referring to the works of the English author Agatha Christie (1890–1976).
Words from the same roots
Proto-Indo-European*peh₂w- all →
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.