Word: minor Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow. Pronunciation: /ˈmaɪ.nəɹ/, /ˈmaɪnə/ 1. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly Example: of minor importance Example: a minor poet 2. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Example: The defendant resides at 123 Fake Street with his partner and two minor children. 3. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Labels: figuratively, sometimes Example: She suffered a minor injury. Example: There was minor bruising. 4. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Example: The musical interval between C and E♭ is a minor third while C to E is a major third. Example: ...a certaine Fraction, which may be the difference betwixt a Tone major and a Tone minor, which we nominate a Schism... 5. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Example: Beethoven's melancholy Moonlight Sonata is scored in the key of C# minor, using the diatonic scale C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, A, and B, but modulates throughout. Example: The minor mode of D is tender. 6. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Labels: Canada, US Example: The minor requirements only involve about 20 hours of classes. 7. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option 8. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Example: The minor term of John Stuart Mill's famous syllogism—usually mistakenly credited to Aristotle—is Socrates; the major term is mortal. 9. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Labels: UK, dated Example: He whipt her with a foxes taile, Barnes minor, Example: Espionage... was a field that had sophisticated itself since the distant time when Patullo Minor... had enthralled his school-fellows with his hazardous escapades. 10. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Labels: historical Example: The minor perfect mode was marked by one single line which crossed three spaces, and the longue was equal to three breves... The minor imperfect mode was marked by a line which crossed two spaces only, and its longue was equal only to two breves. 11. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Labels: historical Example: Josquin works in minor prolation—that is, works in which the signature indicates that a semibreve is equal to two minims, often have a 3 as a medial signature for a few measures, indicating that until the 3 is canceled by the reappearance of a sign for minor prolation, there are to be 3 minims to a semibreve. 12. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Labels: obsolete Example: ...that the Minor part of the Lords might joyn with the Major part of the House of Commons... Example: In every other, the minor will be preferred by me to the major vote. 13. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option Example: And whenever Dre tore her off some money, she always split it up between his kids. She would've felt real minor taking all his cash and spending it on herself, knowing how needy his babies were. 14. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option