minuscule

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English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

  • miniscule (originally a misspelling, but now so common that it has come to be considered an alternative spelling by many)

Etymology

From French minuscule, from Latin minuscula, feminine of minusculus (“rather less, rather small”), from minus (“less, smaller”) + -culus (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɪn.ʊˌskjuːl/, /ˈmɪn.jʊˌskjuːl/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈmɪn.əˌskjul/, /mɪˈnʌsˌkjul/

Noun

minuscule (countable and uncountable, plural minuscules)

  1. (countable) A lowercase letter.
  2. (uncountable) Either of the two medieval handwriting styles minuscule cursive and Caroline minuscule.
    • 2001, Steven Roger Fischer, History of Writing, Reaktion Books, →ISBN, page 254:
      By the eighth century, Irish scribes had refined everyday cursive writing in minuscule to allow its use for the production of quality vellum books.
  3. (countable) A letter in these styles.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

minuscule (comparative more minuscule, superlative most minuscule)

  2. Written in minuscules, lowercase.
  3. Written in minuscule handwriting style.
  4. Very small; tiny.
    a minuscule dot
    • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
      In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations

Usage notes

See the usage notes at miniscule

References

  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

French

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin minusculus.

Adjective

minuscule (plural minuscules)

  1. tiny, minute, minuscule
  2. (typography) lowercase

Etymology 2

Ellipsis of lettre minuscule.

Noun

minuscule f (plural minuscules)

  1. (typography) a minuscule, a lower case
    Antonym: majuscule

Further reading

Latin

Pronunciation

Adjective

minuscule

  1. vocative masculine singular of minusculus

Romanian

Pronunciation

Adjective

minuscule

  1. feminine/neuter plural nominative/accusative of minuscul
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