# minimus
## 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[ward] 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

* gluteus minimus

#### Translations
### References

* “minimus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* minumus (Republican Latin)

### 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

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈmi.ni.mus/, [ˈmɪnɪmʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈmi.ni.mus/, [ˈmiːnimus]

### Adjective

minimus (superlative, feminine minima, neuter minimum); first/second declension
* superlative degree of parvus (“smallest”)

#### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

#### Antonyms

* maximus

#### Descendants

* Italo-Romance:
** Italian: menomo
*** ⇒ Italian: menomare
*** ⇒? Italian: mignolo
* Gallo-Italic:
** ⇒ Lombard: marmel, marmelin (“little finger”)
*** → Sicilian: barbeḍin (“little finger”)
* Gallo-Romance:
** ⇒ Franco-Provençal: amermar
** Old Catalan: merme
*** ⇒ Catalan: marmanya
** Old French: merme
*** ⇒ Old French: doi marme (“little finger”)
*** ⇒? French: marmot (see there for further descendants)
* Ibero-Romance:
** ⇒ Old Galician-Portuguese:
*** Galician: mouminho (“smallest”), me(i)minho (“little finger”)
*** Portuguese: meiminho, mendinho (“little finger”)
** >? Old Galician-Portuguese: meninho (“boy”), minhinho, meninno, menỹo
*** Galician: meniño
*** Portuguese: menino (see there for further descendants)
Borrowings:
* → Catalan: mínim (learned)
* → English: minimum (learned)
* → French: minime, minimum (learned)
* → Galician: mínimo (learned)
* → German: Minimum (learned)
* → Italian: minimo (learned)
* → Piedmontese: mìnim (learned)
* → Portuguese: mínimo (learned)
* → Romanian: minim (learned)
* → Russian: ми́нимум (mínimum) (learned)
* → Spanish: mínimo (learned)

### References

* Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “minimus”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German)
* ↑ 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