Other forms: fewer, fewest
Few means not many — a small number you could count without any trouble. A few crumbs left in the packet, a few people waiting at the bus stop, a few minutes before the train goes.
The little word in front changes everything. A few friends came means some did, and that is fine; few friends came means hardly any, and it sounds sad. Quite a few flips it the other way and means a fair number. Few goes with things you can count and little goes with things you cannot: few coins, little money; few cars, little traffic. It stands on its own too — the few who stayed, one of the few — and the comparative is fewer.
1adjectivehardlyNot many; hardly any — with a note of disappointment in it.~28%
“Few shops in the village stay open past six.”
2adjectivefewA few: some, a small number, with nothing sad about it.~67%
“We waited a few minutes and then went in without her.”
3noungroupThe few: a small group of people set against everyone else.~5%
“The prize went to the few who had trained all winter.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 21 sentences found in the wild and placed 21 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Few is Old English fēaw, from Proto-Germanic *fawaz and the Proto-Indo-European root *peh₂w-, few or small. The same root gave Latin paucus, little, and pauper, poor — so English poor and pauper are distant cousins of few. The word has meant not many for as long as there has been an English.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₂w- — few, small
Proto-Germanic
*fawaz — few
Proto-West Germanic
*fau
Old English
fēaw — few
Middle English
fewe
English, today
few
From Middle English fewe, from Old English fēaw (“few”), from Proto-West Germanic fau, from Proto-Germanic fawaz (“few”), from Proto-Indo-European peh₂w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old Saxon fā (“few”), Old High German fao, fō (“few, little”), Old Norse fár (“few”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍃 (“few”). Also related with Latin paucus (“little, few”) and pauper (“poor”), from which latter poor and pauper; see these.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA