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minimus. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
minimus, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
minimus in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
minimus you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Latin . See minim.
Noun
minimus (plural minimi or minimuses)
- (obsolete) A being of the smallest size.
c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.
- (dated) The youngest pupil in a school having a particular surname.
Jones Minimus wants to join the rowing team.
- (anatomy) The little finger or the little toe
Related terms
Translations
References
Latin
Alternative forms
Etymology
Suppletive superlative of parvus, comparative minor, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mey(h₁)- (“small, little”), whence also Latin minuō, Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌹𐌶𐌰 (minniza, “smaller”). Contains the same suffix as in īnfimus (“lowest”), but details are uncertain. Related to Ancient Greek μῑκρός (mīkrós, “little, small”), English smicker.
Pronunciation
Adjective
minimus (feminine minima, neuter minimum); first/second declension
- superlative degree of parvus
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
Antonyms
Descendants
References
- ^ Weiss, Michael L. (2009) Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, Ann Arbor: Beech Stave Press, →ISBN, pages 360-61
Further reading
- “minimus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “minimus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- minimus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- (ambiguous) the faintest suspicion: suspicio tenuissima, minima