קַטְנוּת f. (preced.) 1) youth; inferior position. Lam. R. introd. (R. Joh. 1) אוי … שבקַטְנוּתוֹ וכ׳ woe to the king who succeeded when he was young but failed in his old age. Meg. 11ᵃ (ref. to הקטן, I Sam. XVII, 14) כשם שבקטנותו הקטין וכ׳ as in his inferior position he (David) subordinated himself to one greater …, so when he was king &c.; a. e. —2) humility, modesty. Ib. הוא בקטנותו he was always the same as to his humility. —3) (sub. אמנה) want of faith, pusillanimity. Sot. 48ᵇ (ref. to Zech. IV, 10) מי גרם … ק׳ שהיתה בהן שלא האמינו וכ׳ (not שהיה) what causes the table of the righteous in the hereafter to be contemptible? The pusillanimity that was in them, in that they had no faith in God; Yalk. Zech. 571. —4) the thinner end, tail-end (cmp. קוֹטֶן). Sot. IX, 15 (49ᵃ) Abba José was surnamed קטונתא, שהיה קַטְנוּתָן של וכ׳ (Y. ed. תמצותן; Bab. ed. קטנתא) because he was the tail-end (the last) of the pious men (v. קָטֹן, Nithpa.); (ib. 49ᵇ שהיה מקטני חסידים, v. preced. w.).