peewee adj.

"extremely small," mid-15c., from earlier noun use in sense of "quantity, amount" (such as a littel wei "a little thing or amount," c. 1300), from Old English wæge "weight, unit of weight," from Proto-Germanic *wego, from PIE root *wegh- "to go, move, transport in a vehicle." The original sense was of motion, which led to that of lifting, then to that of "measure the weight of" (compare weigh, from the same source).

Adjectival use wee bit apparently developed as parallel to such forms as a bit thing "a little thing." Wee hours "hours after midnight" is attested by 1891, from Scottish phrase wee sma' hours (1819); so called for their low numbers. Wee folk "faeries" is recorded from 1819. Weeny "tiny, small" is from 1790.

also pewit, "lapwing" (still the usual name for it in Scotland), also applied to various other birds, 1520s, imitative of its cry. Compare Flemish piewit-voghel; Dutch piewit, kiewit; Middle Low German kivit; German kiwitz; Russian chibezu "lapwing;" also see kibitz. Middle English had peuen, of a kite, "to cry plaintively" (early 15c.) and pewewe was given as the sound of the plaintive cry of some bird (mid-15c.).

"flycatcher, lapwing," 1810, variant of pewit (q.v.). See also peewee.