Minim
nounEtymology See minimum (“least”); so called to humble them even below the Franciscans, or "friars minor".
1
A member of a Roman Catholic religious order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola in fifteenth-century Italy.
minim
nounalso spelled Minim/ˈmɪ.nɪm/
Etymology Borrowed from French minime.
8 senses
- 1A half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.
- 2A unit of volume, in the Imperial and U.S. customary…
- 3A short vertical stroke used in handwriting.
- 4Anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like.
- 5The smallest kind of worker in a leaf-cutter ant colony.
- 6A little man or being; a dwarf.
- 7A small fish; a minnow.
- 8A short poetical encomium.
1
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.
2
A unit of volume, in the Imperial and U.S. customary systems, ¹⁄₆₀ fluid drachm. Approximately equal to 1 drop, 62 μL or 0.9 grain (weight) of water.
- He thanked me with a smiling nod, measured out a few minims of the red tincture and added one of the powders.1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
3
A short vertical stroke used in handwriting.
4
Anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like.
- the minims of existence
6
A little man or being; a dwarf.
- These as a line thir^([sic]) long dimension drew, Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all Minims of Nature; some of Serpent kinde Wondrous in length and corpulence […]1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
7
A small fish; a minnow.
8
A short poetical encomium.
- To make one minim of thy poor handmaid1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- minim confusion, minimometer, minim rest, semiminim