mince
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /mɪns/
homophone: mints
rhymes: -ɪns
Forms: form: minces
form: minch
form: minse
Etymology: From Middle English mincen, minsen; partly from Old English minsian, ġeminsian (“to make less, make smaller, diminish”), from Proto-West Germanic *minnisōn, from Proto-Germanic *minnisōną (“to make less”); partly from Old French mincer, mincier (“to cut into small pieces”), from mince (“slender, slight, puny”), from Frankish *minsto, *minnisto, superlative of *min, *minn (“small, less”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”); both from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Old Saxon minsōn (“to make less, make smaller”), Old Dutch minson (“to make smaller”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌶𐌽𐌰𐌽 (minznan, “to become less, diminish”), Swedish minska (“to reduce, lessen”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (mins, “slender, slight”). More at min.
Senses: examples: text: Mince tastes really good fried in a pan with some chopped onion and tomato.
glosses: Finely chopped meat; minced meat.
examples: text: During Christmas time my dad loves to eat mince pies.
glosses: Finely chopped mixed fruit used in Christmas pies; mincemeat.
examples: text: A wiry little girl in a starched, lemon-colored party dress, she sassed along with a grownup mince, one hand on her hip, the other supporting a spinsterish umbrella.
ref: 1949, Truman Capote, “Children on their Birthdays”, in A Tree of Night and Other Stories, page 36:
text: She was just the same; she had a light way of walking and she always wore flat heels so she didn't have that mince like most girls.
ref: 1963, John Fowles, The Collector, page 15:
text: His skin was china pale, he walked with a slight mince, and his silver mustache was always trimmed sharp; it was his custom to send a bouquet of pink carnations to the wives of men with whom he dined.
ref: 2010, Tom Zoellner, Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World:
glosses: An affected (often dainty or short and precise) gait.
examples: text: A very moderate degree of accomplishment in this direction would make an end of stage smart speech, which, like the got-up Oxford mince and drawl of a foolish curate, is the mark of a snob.
ref: 1896, George Bernard Shaw, “Madame Sans-Gene”, in London Saturday Review:
text: And, further, who has not heard what someone has christened the "Oxford" mince, where every consonant is mispronounced and every vowel gets a wrong value?
ref: 1928, R. M. Pope, The Education Outlook, volume 80, page 285:
text: [...] a smiling man, portly and impressive, coming toward them with a dignified mince in his walk.
ref: 2008, Opie Read, The Colossus, page 95:
glosses: An affected manner, especially of speaking; an affectation.
examples: text: Lancashire is a bit nazi about speed and the M6 in that area can be either clear or infested with vans and their helicopter. On the good side the vans tend to be on well sighted bridges so just keep the old minces peeled.
ref: 2009 May 21, planetdave, “Speed traps”, in PistonHeads, retrieved 22 Mar 2017:
glosses: An eye (from mince pie).
examples: text: That band's new album is total mince.
glosses: Something worthless; rubbish.
Derived terms: mincy
thick as mince