barely, hardly (qualifying verbs or adjectives) · barely any, almost no (qualifying amounts) · difficult, nearly impossible
eş: wenig, schwerlich
köken: From Middle High German kūme, from Old High German kūmo, from Proto-Germanic *kūmaz, *kūmijaz (“weak, pitiful, frail”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH- (“to call, cry”). Cognate with English comely and archaic Dutch kuim (“barely”).
köken: Inconclusive. Whilst its current definition was long thought to have come from Indonesian hampir due to its exclusive presence in Dutch (and no other Germanic language), this would not explain its high and almost universal usage in Flemish. More likely would be if it originated on Dutch soil. In that case, the meaning would have changed somewhat from the earlier Middle Dutch amper (“sour”) –…
hardly, barely (with difficulty) · hardly, barely, scarcely (in a very small measure) · only, just (no more than)
köken: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Vulgar Latin ad Proto-Indo-European *weyk- Proto-Italic *wiks Vulgar Latin vix Vulgar Latin *ad vix Romanian abi Romanian abia Inherited from Vulgar Latin *ad vix, from ad + vix. The original form was abi, a variant found in some dialects; the final -a was added by analogy with adverbs like aci(a), aiure(a), acole(a). This suffixation…