kicsi

Shortened from kicsiny.^[1]

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• Hyphenation: ki‧csi
• Rhymes: -t͡ʃi

kicsi (comparative kisebb, superlative legkisebb)

1. little, small

   Synonyms: kis, kicsike, kicsiny, kicsinyke, pici, picike, apró

   Antonym: nagy

2. in one's childhood (often used with kor)

   Synonym: gyerek (especially in compounds, e.g. gyermekkor)

The numeral két (“two”) and the adjective kis (“small, little”) can only stand adjectively, before a noun (e.g. két alma (“two apples”) and kis alma (“a small apple”)). If they were to occur on their own (possibly also inflected), predicatively, or in reference to a whole noun phrase, the terms kettő (“two”) and kicsi (“small”) must be used instead: Csak kettő van (“There are only two”), Csak kicsi van (“There is a small one only.”) The same applies to compound numerals like tizenkét and tizenkettő (“twelve”). In terms of distribution, két and kis are like English sick (sick people ~ két/kis alma) while kettő and kicsi resemble ill (they are ill ~ csak kettő/kicsi van). The longer forms are definitely broader in use as they may also occur adjectively, whether for emphasis or as a form of colloquialism. As a rule of thumb, the short variants (két, kis) never stand on their own.

kicsi (plural kicsik)

1. (informal) baby, infant, little child

   Synonyms: kisgyerek, csecsemő, baba

2. (with a first-person singular single-possession possessive suffix) (my) darling, my dear (an affectionate, familiar term of address)
3. little part, piece, quantity or amount
4. construed with -ben: in small size or scale

Its possessive-suffixed forms are very rare, except for the first-person singular single-possession form kicsim.

• kicsi in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN