Etymology

unlittle

U1N1L1I1T1T1L1E1

Today it means: Not little. Full definition →

Middle English unlitel ← Old English unlȳtel ← Proto-West Germanic *unlutil
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*unlutil“not little”
  2. Old English · inherited fromunlȳtel
  3. Middle English · inherited fromunlitel
  4. English todayunlittle

From Middle English unlitel, unnlitell, from Old English unlȳtel, unlytel (“not little, large, great”), from Proto-West Germanic *unlutil (“not little”), equivalent to un- + little. Cognate with Old High German unluzzil (“excessive, inordinate”), Old Norse úlítill (“not little”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.