small in quantity: few in number, little in amount, or brief in time or extent
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is the ordinary Greek word for smallness of quantity, and it is the natural opposite of πολύς, the word for "many" or "much." The two are constantly paired: many are called but few are chosen, the harvest is great but the workers are few.
The one idea of "a small quantity" simply attaches to whatever is being measured. With things you can count, it means a small number, that is, a few. With things measured by amount or degree, it means a little or a slight bit. With stretches of time or space, it means a short while or a short way. These are not different words but one word pointed at different kinds of quantity, so a translator chooses the English term that fits what is being counted or measured.
Writers also use it in an understated way, especially in the book of Acts: to call an uproar or a profit "not small" is a quiet way of saying it was in fact considerable. Naming the small end and denying it lets the reader feel how large the thing really was.
Nuances
1afew: a small number of countable people or things
What Agrippa means by the phrase "in/with little" in Acts 26:28 (and Paul's echo in 26:29): a measure of time ("in a short time"), of effort or means ("with little trouble"), or of degree ("to a small extent, almost").
contestedA reference to degree or speed, conventionally rendered "almost" or "in such a short time you would persuade me"; the older translation tradition favored this.; BDAG, s.v. ὀλίγος
contestedAn idiom of effort or brevity, "with little (argument) you are trying to make me a Christian," read as Agrippa's ironic deflection rather than near-conversion.; C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (ICC)
Measures a short extent in space or distance, a use the other word never carries.Act 27:28
Describes a brief stretch of speech or writing, as in a letter said in only a few words.Heb 13:22
oligos in the other biblical languages
מְעַטHebrew“little”the common Hebrew word for a small quantity, "a little, few," the closest Old Testament counterpart for both the "few" and the "a little" senses
The everyday word for a small portion of a physical thing: a little water, a little food, a little oil.Gen 24:171Ki 17:101Ki 17:12
Anchors the "a little of this is better than a lot of that" proverbs, weighing a small amount against abundance.Pro 15:16Pro 16:8Psa 37:16
What scholars say about oligos
The lexica (BDAG, LSJ) treat ὀλίγος as a single quantitative adjective with three contextual applications: number (plural "few"), measure or degree (singular "little, small, slight"), and extent of time or space ("a short while, a short way"), the polar opposite of πολύς. Adverbial and prepositional uses (ὀλίγον, πρὸς ὀλίγον, ἐν ὀλίγῳ) and the litotes οὐκ ὀλίγος, frequent in Acts, are standard idiomatic extensions rather than distinct lexemes. The one genuine crux is the ἐν ὀλίγῳ of Acts 26:28-29, where temporal, instrumental, and degree readings compete; the commentary tradition (Barrett, Bruce) treats it as deliberately ambiguous wordplay between Agrippa and Paul.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ὀλίγοςlexicon
LSJ, s.v. ὀλίγοςlexicon
C. K. Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (ICC), vol. 2commentary
F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles: Greek Text with Introduction and Commentarycommentary