▪ I. ‖ mina1
(ˈmaɪnə)
Pl. minæ (ˈmaɪniː), minas (ˈmaɪnəz). Also 7 myna, mine, 8 minah; pl. 7 minaes, mynaes.
[L. mina, ad. Gr. µνᾶ (see mna), prob. from a Babylonian source: cf. maneh.]
1. A unit of weight anciently used in Western Asia, Greece, and Egypt.
In Greek-speaking countries it contained 100 drachmas; it varied according to locality and time, but was not far from 1 lb. avoirdupois; 100 minas made a talent. In Assyria and Babylonia there seem to have been two different minas, one being double of the other.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch Explan. Words, Mina or Mna, a weight, answering to Libra, that is to say, a pound. 1771 Raper in Phil. Trans. LXI. 487 It weighed 72 Attic Minas. 1845 P. Smith in W. Smith's Dict. Gr. & Rom. Ant. s.v. Talentum, Another standard of the talent, which was used in commercial transactions,..the mina of which was called the commercial mina... This mina is mentioned..as weighing 138 drachmae. 1903 19th Cent. Aug. 271 The Babylonian ordinary mina was equal to 982·4 grammes. Sixty minae made one talent. |
2. A denomination of money anciently current in Greece and Greek-speaking countries, = 100 drachmas. (Rendered ‘pound’ in the English versions of the N.T.)
| 1579–80 North Plutarch, Lysander (1595) 486 A tallent of siluer, two and fifty Minas [etc.]. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 242 Each supper stood him in a hundred Mynaes of gold, each mina or dina, in our money valuing six and twenty shillings and eight pence. 1659 Stanley Hist. Philos. xi. (1687) 768/2 He [Protagoras] was the first, that took a hundred Minæ for a gratuity. 1685 Cotton tr. Montaigne xxxiv. (1711) I. 312 He was presently awarded ten Attick Mines. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. x. (1869) I. 141 Four minæ were equal to thirteen pounds six shillings and eight pence. 1838 Thirlwall Greece xxxiii. IV. 296 Cyrus had promised them a largess of five minas a-piece. 1845 P. Smith in W. Smith's Dict. Gr. & Rom. Ant. s.v. Talentum, The [Attic] mina was 4l. 1s. 3d... The Aeginetan mina was, according to the existing coins, 5l. 14s. 7d. 1877 C. Geikie Christ liv. (1879) 657 He gave them each, only a mina, one hundred drachmae. |
3. = maneh.
| 1737 Whiston Josephus p. cl, Maneh, Mna, or Mina, as a coin = 60 Shekels. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XII. 37/2 [Ezekiel] tells us that the minah or maneh was valued at 60 shekels. |
▪ II. ‖ mina2
(ˈmaɪnə)
Forms: 8 maynat, 8–9 mino, minor, 9 minah, minar, miner, myna, mynah, myneh, maina, 9– mina.
[Hindī mainā.]
A name applied to several different sturnoid passerine birds of India and countries further east, belonging to the genera Acridotheres and Eulabes, esp. Eulabes (formerly Gracula) religiosa, the common talking starling of India. In Australia also applied to various species of the genera Manorhina and Myzantha.
| 1769 Lady M. Coke Jrnl. 11 Aug. (1892) III. 131 A number of fine Birds presented themselves before me: an Noble Mino that I wanted to Buy, but [etc.]. 1800 Misc. Tracts in Asiat. Ann. Reg. 4/2 The maynat. 1813 J. Forbes Oriental Mem. I. 47 The myneh is a very entertaining bird,..articulating several words in the manner of the starling. 1831 E. J. Trelawny Adv. Younger Son III. 246 The mina, of deeper blue than the sky. 1848 Gould Birds Australia IV. pl. 79 Yellow-throated Miner. 1859 Lang Wand. India 263 A minar was chased by a small hawk. 1879 M. Stokes Ind. Fairy Tales iv. (1880) 18 So the dog went to a maina and said: ‘What shall I do to hurt this cat?’ 1888 D. Macdonald Gum Boughs 146 Yellow-legged minahs, tamest of all Australian birds. 1893 Myna, Maina, Minor [see grackle 1]. |
b. Comb., as mina-bird, mina-grackle.
| 1782, 1842 Minor Grakle, mino grakle [see grackle 1]. 1864 Chambers's Encycl., Mina bird. |