Minim

//ˈmɪ.nɪm// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.
  2. 2
    A member of a Roman Catholic religious order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola in fifteenth-century Italy.
  3. 3
    a musical note having the time value of half a whole note wordnet
  4. 4
    A unit of volume, in the Imperial and U.S. customary systems, ¹⁄₆₀ fluid drachm. Approximately equal to 1 drop, 62 μL or 0.9 grain (weight) of water.

    "He thanked me with a smiling nod, measured out a few minims of the red tincture and added one of the powders."

  5. 5
    a United States liquid unit equal to 1/60 fluidram wordnet
Show 7 more definitions
  1. 6
    A short vertical stroke used in handwriting.
  2. 7
    a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 1/60th fluid dram or 0.059194 cubic centimeters wordnet
  3. 8
    Anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like.

    "the minims of existence"

  4. 9
    The smallest kind of worker in a leaf-cutter ant colony.
  5. 10
    A little man or being; a dwarf.

    "These as a line thir^([sic]) long dimension drew, Streaking the ground with sinuous trace; not all Minims of Nature; some of Serpent kinde Wondrous in length and corpulence […]"

  6. 11
    A small fish; a minnow.
  7. 12
    A short poetical encomium.

    "To make one minim of thy poor handmaid"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From French minime.

Etymology 2

See minimum (“least”); so called to humble them even below the Franciscans, or "friars minor".

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