Origin and history of piccolo

late 14c., "small, little; minor, trifling, insignificant," from Old French petit "small, little, young, few in numbers" (11c.), which is probably from the stem of Late Latin pitinnus "small," a word of uncertain origin; it corresponds to no known Latin form and perhaps is from a Celtic root pett- "part, piece, bit" also found in Italian pezza, English piece.

Attested as a surname from 1086. Replaced by petty in most usages, except in established forms such as petit bourgeois "conventional middle-class" (1832; used in English by Charlotte Brontë earlier than by Marx or Engels); petit mal ("mild form of epilepsy," 1842, literally "little evil"); petit-maître ("a fop, a dandy," 1711, literally "little master"); and petit four "small, fancy dessert cake" (1884), which in French means "little oven," from Old French four "oven," from Latin furnus. In Middle English a petiteskole (mid-15c.) was a school for young children.

"weapon with a long shaft and a pointed metal head," 1510s, from French pique "a spear; pikeman," from piquer "to pick, puncture, pierce," from Old French pic "sharp point or spike," a general continental term (Spanish pica, Italian picca, Provençal piqua), perhaps ultimately from a Germanic [Barnhart] or Celtic source (see pike (n.2)). An alternative explanation traces the Old French word (via Vulgar Latin *piccare "to prick, pierce") to Latin picus "woodpecker." No doubt, too, there is influence from pike (n.1), which by 1200 had a sense of "spiked staff."

"Formerly the chief weapon of a large part of the infantry; in the 18th c. superseded by the bayonet" [OED]; hence old expressions such as pass through pikes "come through difficulties, run the gauntlet;" push of pikes "close-quarters combat." German Pike, Dutch piek, Danish pik, etc. are from French pique.