mennom dial.
(ˈmɛnəm)
Forms: 7–8 minum, 7–9 minim, 8 menin, 8–9 mennin, 9 mennom, -on, -im, -um, -am, etc. (see E.D.D.)
[? A corruption of minnow, due to association with minim.]
= minnow.
| 1654 Fuller Ephemeris Pref. 7 Minums will get through the holes thereof [sc. a drag-net]. 1674 Ray Collect. Words, Fresh-water Fish 111 The Minow, Minim or Pink. 1794–6 E. Darwin Zoon. (1801) I. 251 A great number of little fish called minums or pinks. 1806 in Archæologia XV. 352 note, The minnow still called..‘mennom’ in the north of England. a 1810 Tannahill Poems (1846) 76 Up frae the mennon to the whale. 1838 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. ii. xix. 294 Little ponds never hold big fish; there is nothing but pollywogs, tadpoles, and minims in them. 1893 Northumbld. Gloss., Mennim, Mennam, Menowm, Mennem. 1904 Spectator 28 May 847/2 Minnow, pink,..meaker, menot, minim, peer,..and minnin are all synonymous. |
| attrib. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. iii. iii, The saughtree shades the menin pool. |