Etymology 1
From Middle Persian 𐭪𐭬 (km /kam/, “little, small”),[1] from Proto-Iranian *kam(b)-na- (“small”), from Proto-Iranian *kamb- (“small”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kambʰ (“few, small, insignificant”), probably related to Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to arise, begin; new, fresh”).[2]
Pronunciation
More information Readings, Classical reading? ...
Readings |
Classical reading? |
kam |
Dari reading? |
kam |
Iranian reading? |
kam |
Tajik reading? |
kam |
Close
Adjective
کم • (kam) (comparative کمتَر (kam-tar), superlative کمتَرین (kam-tarin))
More information Dari, Iranian Persian ...
Dari |
کم |
Iranian Persian |
Tajik |
кам |
Close
- few, little
- Synonyms: خجاره (xojâre), اندک (andak)
- Antonyms: زیاد (ziyâd), خیلی (xeyli)
- scarce, rare, lacking
Usage notes
Unlike most comparatives and superlatives, کمتر (kam-tar), and کمترین (kam-tarin) are frequently written joined, as کمتر (kamtar) and کمترین (kamtarin)
Derived terms
(compound verbs)
- کم کردن (kam kardan, “to reduce, to lessen”)
- کم شدن (kam šodan, “to be diminished, to be reduced”)
- کم آمدن (kam âmadan, “to run short, to become lacking”)
- کم گرفتن (kam gereftan, “to slight, to look down on”)
- کم دادن (kam dâdan, “to shortchange”)
(others)
- کمخوابی (kam-xâbi)
- کمخونی (kam-xuni)
- کمحرف (kam-harf)
- کمرنگ (kamrang)
- کمکم (kam-kam)
- کمبخت (kam-baxt)
Descendants
- Indic:
- Assamese: কম (kom)
- Bengali: কম (kom)
- Baluchi: کم
- → Hindustani:
- Hindi: कम (kam), कम- (kam-)
- Urdu: کم (kam)
- Kashmiri: کم (km)
- Marathi: कमी (kamī)
- Nepali: कम (kam)
- Odia: କମ (kama)
- → Punjabi:
- Gurmukhi script: ਕਮ (kam)
- Shahmukhi script: کم (kam)
- Santali: ᱠᱚᱢ (kôm)
- → Tamil: கம்மி (kammi)
- → Azerbaijani: kəm
- → Bashkir: кәм (kəm, “insufficient, scarce; inferior”)
- → Kazakh: кем (kem)
- → Tatar: ким (kim)
- → Uzbek: kam
- → Yagnobi: кам (kam)
References
Nourai, Ali (2011) An Etymological Dictionary of Persian, English and other Indo-European Languages, page 208
Edelʹman, D. I. (2011) Etimologičeskij slovarʹ iranskix jazykov [Etymological Dictionary of Iranian Languages] (in Russian), volume 4, Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, page 193