अल्प

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit अल्प (alpa).

• (Delhi) IPA^(key): /əlp/,

अल्प • (alp) (indeclinable, Urdu spelling الپ) (formal)

1. a little (a small amount of)

   Synonym: थोड़ा (thoṛā)

2. short (having little duration)

Of unclear origin. Attempts to connect the word to Iranian and Greek place names, or with words such as Ancient Greek ἀλᾰπαδνός (alapadnós, “easily exhausted, feeble”), λᾰπᾰρός (laparós, “slack, loose”), Latin lepidus (“pleasant, witty”), or Lithuanian al̃pti (“to become unconscious”) are formally tenuous. Other theories connect the word to अणु (aṇu, “atom, particle”).

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /ɐl.pɐ/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /ˈɐl̪.pɐ/

अल्प • (álpa) stem (comparative अल्पीयस् or अल्पतर, superlative अल्पिष्ठ)

1. small, minute, trifling, little
2. (neut. ablative singular) easily, without trouble

• Early Assamese:
  • Assamese: আপা (apa), আপী (api)
• → Early Assamese: অলপ (olopo) (semi-learned)
  • Assamese: অলপ (olop)
• → Bengali: অল্প (olpo)
• → Hindi: अल्प (alp)
• → Indonesian: alpa
• → Malay: alpa
• Pali: appa
• → Telugu: అల్పము (alpamu)

• Monier Williams (1899) “अल्प”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, , new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 95/2.
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1992) Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎ (in German), volume 1, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 129