minion

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

minion

Wikipedia

Etymology

1490, from Middle French mignon (“lover, royal favourite, darling”), from Old French mignon (“dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind”), from Frankish *minnju (“love, friendship, affection, memory”), from Proto-Germanic *minþijō, *mindijō (“affectionate thought, care”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnjən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Homophone: minyan
• Rhymes: -ɪnjən
• Hyphenation: min‧ion

Noun

minion (countable and uncountable, plural minions)

1. A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.

   Synonyms: disciple, follower; see also Thesaurus:loyal follower

   The archvillain deployed his minions to simultaneously rob every bank in the city.

   • 2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 184:

     In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.

2. A sycophantic follower.
3. (obsolete) A loved one; one highly esteemed and favoured.
   • 1608, Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas his divine weekes and workes:

     God's disciple and his dearest minion

   • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Is this the Athenian minion whom the world / Voiced so regardfully?

4. (obsolete) An ancient form of ordnance with a calibre of about three inches.
   • 1647, Francis Beaumont, Philip Massinger, The Double Marriage (play), published 1717, page 19:

     Gun. My Cannons rung like Bells. Here's to my Mistress, The dainty sweet brass Minion: split their Fore-mast, She never fail'd.

5. (uncountable, typography, printing) The size of type between nonpareil and brevier, standardized as 7-point.
6. Obsolete form of minium.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     Of philosophers and scholars priscae sapientiae dictatores, I have already spoken in general terms, those superintendents of wit and learning, men above men, those refined men, minions of the muses.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

minion (comparative more minion, superlative most minion)

1. (obsolete) Favoured, beloved; "pet".
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes , book 1, p.148, London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:

     These favours, with the commodities that follow minion Courtiers, corrupt […] his libertie, and dazle his judgement.

Chuukese

Etymology

Borrowed from English million.

Numeral

minion

1. million

Welsh

Etymology

From min +‎ -ion.

Noun

minion

1. plural of min

Mutation