Petite

How to spell petite

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce petite

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does petite mean?

1. adjectiveOf a woman, attractively small and slender in build.

Petite in a sentence

• The tailor adjusted the suit for her petite frame.

• The shop stocks a petite range for shorter customers.

Where does petite come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes straight from French, where petite is the feminine form of the adjective petit, meaning 'small' or 'little'. The Old French petit is thought to derive from a Late Latin root pitittus, an informal or nursery word for something tiny, related to the broader European stock of 'pit'-type words used to describe little things. English adopted petite in the early modern period and increasingly reserved it for describing a woman of small and slender build, keeping the feminine French ending rather than anglicising it. That preserved French spelling is exactly what trips writers up: the final syllable sounds like 'eet' yet is written -ite, and the word keeps its full feminine -e even in English. The same root survives in everyday borrowings such as 'petit four' and the legal phrase 'petit jury', where the older masculine spelling petit is kept instead.

How the word is built

• petite (French feminine of petit: small, little)