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”).
barely, hardly · just, recently, newly · as soon as
eş: a fatica, a mala pena, a stento, con difficoltà, faticosamente, stentatamente
köken: Inherited from Vulgar Latin *ad poenam. By surface analysis, univerbation of a + pena (“pain, trouble”). Compare French à peine, Spanish apenas, etc.
Ti si sente appena con tutto questo baccano.
È appena arrivata, dalle un po' di tempo per riposarsi.
eş: только, всего, единственно, исключительно, лишь только, только
köken: Old East Slavic лише (liše), originally comparative form of лихъ (lixŭ, “bad”). Compare with Ukrainian лише́ (lyšé), лишень (lyšenʹ) and лиш (lyš), Carpathian Rusyn лиш (lyš).
aile: всего лишь, лишь бы, лишь только, только лишь
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”) –…