The smallest number of; less than any other quantity of something.
From Old English 'feaw' (few) plus '-est' (superlative suffix). The superlative '-est' comes from Proto-Germanic and appears in 'smallest,' 'best,' and 'fastest,' representing one of the oldest comparison methods in English.
Interestingly, 'few' and 'fewest' have irregular pluralization—we don't say 'fewe' or use different roots like some languages do. This shows how some of English's oldest words preserve ancient irregular patterns because we learn them so early and use them constantly!
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