miniature

English

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Miniature

Wikiquote

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian miniatura (“manuscript illumination”), from miniare (“to illuminate”), from Latin miniō (“to colour red”), from minium (“red lead”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnɪtʃə/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪn(i)ət͡ʃəɹ/, /ˈmɪn(i)ət͡ʃʊəɹ/

Noun

miniature (plural miniatures)

1. Greatly diminished size or form; reduced scale.
2. A small version of something; a model of reduced scale.

   There was a miniature of a whaling ship in a glass bottle over the mantelpiece.

   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 324:

     The twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany are conceived as a miniature of the whole year, the character of each particular day answering to the character of a particular month.

3. A small, highly detailed painting, a portrait miniature.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     The miniature was a picture of Leo's Greek mother - a lovely, dark-eyed creature.

4. The art of painting such highly detailed miniature works.
5. An illustration in an illuminated manuscript.
6. A musical composition which is short in duration.

   Sacha composed a miniature for strings as a final project at the conservatory.

7. (chess) A chess game which is concluded with very few moves.
8. (roleplaying games, board games) A token in a game representing a unit or character.

   Jack had dozens of miniatures of Napoleonic footsoldiers painted in detailed period regalia for his wargames.

9. Lettering in red; rubric distinction.
10. A particular feature or trait.
    • 1627, Philip Massinger, “The Great Duke of Florence”, in William Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger‎, published 1845, act 5, scene 3, page 221:

      There's no miniature / In her fair face, but is a copious theme / Which would, discoursed at large of, make a volume.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

miniature (comparative more miniature, superlative most miniature)

1. Smaller than normal.

   I find miniature dogs annoying; they seem to yap more than full-size dogs.

   • 2013 September 6, Alok Jha, “Miniature brains grown in lab”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 39:

     Scientists have grown miniature human brains in test tubes, creating a "tool" that will allow them to watch how the organs develop in the womb and, they hope, increase their understanding of neurological and mental problems. ¶ Just a few millimetres across, the "cerebral organoids" are built up of layers of brain cells with defined regions that resemble those seen in immature, embryonic brains.

Derived terms

• in miniature
• miniature poodle
• miniaturism

Translations

Verb

miniature (third-person singular simple present miniatures, present participle miniaturing, simple past and past participle miniatured)

1. (transitive) To make smaller than normal; to reproduce in miniature.
   • 1755, John Shebbeare, An Answer to a Pamphlet, called A Second Letter to the People‎, London: M. Cooper, page 29:

     If it be ever so little removed, or seen thro’ the miniaturing End of the Perspective Glass, it either wholly escapes their Sight, or appears to them a mere Minutity.

   • 1780, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Emma Corbett‎, Bath: Pratt and Clinch, Volume 2, Letter 67, p. ,101:

     The smile of the babe was in my eye, and in my heart. I saw miniatur’d forth, the features of the murdered Edward.

   • c. 1807, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, letter to Joseph Cottle, cited in Joseph Cottle, Early Recollections, Chiefly Relating to the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London: Longman, Rees, 1837, Volume 2, p. 131,

     Now what the globe is in geography, miniaturing in order to manifest the truth, such is a poem to that image of God, which we were created into

   • 1968, Samuel R. Delany, chapter 5, in Nova, New York: Doubleday:

     […] a moon holds its gray glories miniatured in rock and dust.

   • 2009, Helen Oyeyemi, White Is for Witching‎, New York: Nan A. Talese, pages 98-99:

     Dad had had Lily’s Haiti photos developed, and […] among them was a sunset miniatured in purple […]

French

French Wikipedia has an article on:

miniature

Wikipedia ^fr

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian miniatura.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.nja.tyʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

miniature f (plural miniatures)

1. miniature
2. (computing) thumbnail (a miniature preview of a larger image)

   Synonyms: vignette, aperçu

Further reading

• “miniature”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian

Noun

miniature f

1. plural of miniatura

Anagrams

• minuteria, riaumenti, ruminiate