English
puny
Puny comes from Anglo-Norman puisné ‘later, more recent’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- ‘to produce’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵenh₁-‘to produce’root as named · steps between not traced
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400puisné‘later, more recent’
- Englishearliest quotation 1595puny
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵenh₁-‘to produce’root as named · steps between not traced
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400puisné‘later, more recent’
- Englishearliest quotation 1595puny
Earliest quotation: 1595, The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto): “I had forgot my ſelfe, am I not King?…”
The story
Puis is derived from Old French pois (‘after; since’), from Vulgar Latin *postius (‘afterward’), from Latin posteā (‘afterwards; hereafter; thereafter; next, then’), from post (‘after; since’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pós (‘afterwards’)) + ea (‘these (things)’); and né from Latin nātus (‘born’), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (‘to beget; to give birth; to produce’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- ‘to produce’
general, kind, king, nature, german, nation, engine, generation, native, gender, pregnant, genuine, gene, genius, oxygen, ken, genre, gentle, indigenous, hydrogen, genocide, naive, genus, kin, noel, innate, genital, natal, ingenious, nee, germ, nativity, nada, nascent, naïve, gentile, janata, gens, glycogen, genial, 115 more
Today it means
adj Of inferior significance, size, or strength; ineffective, small, weak.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- / puny