Minch

name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A strait in Scotland, between the north-west Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides.

    "The best Place for a Staple [of herrings], would be at Stornway, in one of the Lewis Islands, which is a good Harbour, and there are many good Hands; also it lies open to the Minch, a Sea above sixty Miles over to the main Land of Scotland, to the Southward of which lies the Isle of Sky, …"

  2. 2
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    A nun. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    Alternative form of mince. alt-of, alternative, dialectal
  2. 2
    Alternative form of mitch (“play truant from school”). alt-of, alternative

    "William Henry opened the gates for them along the return journey, and at the lodge accepted shamefacedly a penny and a promise of the bad end little boys came to who minched from school."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Reduced form of Minnish or Minchin.

Etymology 2

From Middle English mynche, a reduced form of minchen, monchen, from Old English myneċen (“a female monk, nun”), from Proto-Germanic *munikinnō (“female monk”), from *munikaz (“monk”), from Late Latin monachus (“monk”), from Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós, “hermit”, noun), from μοναχός (monakhós, “single, solitary”, adjective), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”), from Proto-Indo-European *men-, *menw-, *manw- (“small, little, isolated”). Cognate with German Mönchin (“female monk”). Related also to minnow. More at monk.

Etymology 3

From Middle English menchen, a variant of mincen. More at mince.

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