An interesting study might be made of the words we apply to children in respect of size, _little, small, wee, tiny,_ etc., very many of which, in their etymology, have no reference to childhood, or indeed to smallness. The derivation of little is uncertain, but the word is reasonably thought to have meant "little" in the sense of "deceitful, mean," from the radical _lut_, "to stoop" (hence "to creep, to sneak"). Curiously enough, the German _klein_ has lost its original meaning,--partly seen in our clean,--"bright, clear." _Small_ also belongs in the same category, as the German _schmal_, "narrow, slim," indicates, though perhaps the original signification may have been "small" as we now understand it; a cognate word is the Latin _macer_, "thin, lean," which has lost an s at the beginning. Even wee, as the phrase "a little wee bit" hints, is thought (by Skeat) to be nothing more than a Scandinavian form of the same word which appears in our English _way_. Skeat also tells us that "a little teeny boy," meant at first "a little fractious (peevish) boy," being derived from an old word _teen_, "anger, peevishness." Analogous to _tiny_ is _pettish_, which is derived from _pet_, "mama's pet," "a spoiled child." Endless would the list of words of this class be, if we had at our disposal the projected English dialect dictionary; many other illustrations might be drawn from the numerous German dialect dictionaries and the great Swiss lexicon of Tobler. Still more interesting, perhaps, would be the discussion of the special words used to denote the actions and movements of children of all ages, and the names and appellatives of the child derived from considerations of age, constitution, habits, actions, speech, etc., which are especially numerous in Low German dialects and such forms of English speech as the Lowland Scotch. Worthy of careful attention are the synonyms of child, the comparisons in which the child figures in the speech of civilized and uncivilized man; the slang terms also, which, like the common expression of to-day, _kid_, often go back to a very primitive state of mind, when "children" and "kids" were really looked upon as being more akin than now. Beside the terms of contempt and sarcasm,--_goose_, _loon_, _pig_, _calf_, _donkey_, etc.,--those figures of speech which, the world over, express the sentiment of the writer of the _Wisdom of Solomon_ regarding the foolishness of babes,--we, like the ancient Mexicans and many another lower race, have terms of praise and endearment,--"a jewel of a babe," and the like,--legions of caressives and diminutives in the use of which some of the Low German dialects are more lavish even than Lowland Scotch.