▪ I. minor, a. and n.
(ˈmaɪnə(r))
Forms: 3–4 menor, 4 mynor, 4–5 menour, 5 menoure, -owre, -eour, minore, 6– minor.
[a. L. minor, nom. sing. masc. and fem. (neut. minus minus, declension-stem minōr-) smaller, lesser, junior, f. Indogermanic root *min- small: cf. L. minuĕre, Gr. µινύθειν, OE. minsian to diminish, OTeut. *minwiz less, *minwizon- lesser: see min a.
OFr. had menour (whence most of the ME. forms):—L. minōrem accus., beside meindre (mod.F. moindre):—L. minor. In early mod.Fr. the Latin word was adopted in special uses as mineur. Cf. Sp., Pg. menor, It. minore.]
A. adj. I. 1. friar minor, † minor friar: a Franciscan.
Rendering of med.L. Fratres Minores, lit. ‘lesser brethren’, the name chosen by St. Francis for the order founded by him, as expressing the humility which he desired its members to cultivate. Cf. B. 1.
The plural is now friars minor; formerly friar minors, friars minors, were common.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 10241 Þe ordre bigan of frere menors þulke sulue ȝer [i.e. 1210] ywis. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxi. 139 Twa frere meneours of Lombardy. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 333/1 Menour frere, or frere menowre, (P. menowre friyr), minor. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 140 Though the frere minor gyue great example of holynes,..yet [etc.]. 1635 E. Pagitt Christianogr. i. iii. (1636) 93 The Friers Minors onely, are esteemed to be 60 thousand. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals iii. i. 238 They elected Pietro Filardo, a Minor Fryer. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Friar, Franciscan, or grey, or minor, or begging, friars. 1862 Chambers's Encycl. IV. 518/1 The Franciscans were properly denominated ‘Friars Minor’ (Fratres Minores). |
II. = lesser in various specific applications. (Not followed by than.)
2. a. Used as the distinctive epithet of the lesser (in various senses) of two things, species, etc., that have a common designation; also applied to those members of a class that collectively form a subdivision as being smaller than the rest; opposed to major. Chiefly in certain special collocations, many of which originated in med. or mod.Latin; in most of these lesser may be substituted. So minor poem, minor public school, minor road; also minor canon, minor excommunication, minor orders, minor prophets (see those ns.). † Minor Fellow (Cambridge): a junior fellow; minor planet: one of the asteroids or small planets between Mars and Jupiter; minor league (chiefly N. Amer.), the lower associations of teams in baseball, etc. (opp. major a. 1 e); also attrib. and fig.; hence minor leaguer; minor loyalty: adherence to an institution, church, trade union, or the like, which is subordinate to loyalty to one's country or its government; minor piece: in Chess (see quot. 1847); minor suit: in Bridge, diamonds or clubs; minor tactics: the tactics or handling of bodies of troops in the immediate face or expected presence of the enemy.
| 1654 Trapp (title) A commentary..upon the xii Minor Prophets. 1670 Walton Lives iv. 21 He was made Minor Fellow in the year 1609..Major Fellow of the Colledge, March 15, 1615. 1679–88 Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (Camden) 92 John Tinker, one of the minor canons of the collegiate church of St. Peter's, Westm{supr}. 1683 J. Poyntz Tobago 29 The Brazil Tree... Brazilleto, is a Minor or Junior Brazil. 1819 Keats Let. 2 Jan. (1958) II. 26 It is my intention to wait a few years before I publish any minor poems. 1820 J. S. Bingham tr. E. Dal Rio's Incomparable Game of Chess i. ii. 26 Two minor Pieces, for a Rook and two Pawns, may be considered an equal contract. 1847 H. Staunton Chess-Player's Handbk. i. iii. 24 The Bishop and Knight, in contradistinction to the Queen and Rook, are called minor Pieces. 1861 G. F. Chambers Astron. i. ix. 51 A numerous group of small bodies revolving round the Sun which are known as the Minor Planets. 1863 Handbk. Chess & Draughts 19 The Knight and Bishop, in contradistinction to the Rook and Queen, are termed minor pieces. 1875 C. Clery (title) Minor tactics. 1885 A. B. Letts A.B.C. of Minor Tactics 59 Minor tactics..come into use not only on the field of battle but also off it. 1889 Sporting Life (Philadelphia) 29 May 1/2 It will mean..the relegation of four-fifths of the men not in those leagues to the minor leagues. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 765 The first fits occur during retarded dentition..as very slight ‘minor’ attacks. 1906 Cincinnati Enquirer 1 Apr. iv. 2/1 The Coast team is a strong aggregation, fit to cope with the best of minor leaguers. 1916 R. F. Foster Auction Bridge for All v. 23 Clubs and diamonds are called minor, or losing suits. Ibid., A much larger percentage of minor suit declarations fail to make good the contract than major suits. 1927 Carr-Saunders & Jones Survey Social Struct. Eng. & Wales 83 To discuss the ‘minor loyalties’ which such associations create. 1928 H. Rowan-Robinson Some Aspects Mechanization 3 The study of the minor tactics of petrol-driven forces. 1932 Time 28 Mar. 29/1 After six years in the minor leagues he has become catcher for the Washington Senators. 1936 ‘J. Tey’ Shilling for Candles vii. 81 The Grammar schools..turned out a very fine type of boy. Better often..than came from the minor public schools. 1942 E. Paul Narrow St. xxxiv. 304 Daladier was well along with his minor league Kampf. He had repealed the forty-hour week, reduced the wages for overtime and removed the limit of hours. 1962 Listener 23 Aug. 285/1 Auden in the 'thirties was no better than Osborne in the 'fifties; both operated in a very minor league. 1963 ‘W. Haggard’ High Wire v. 54 The junction of the minor road to Maldington with the main to London. 1967 P. Anderton Play Bridge iii. 24 One does not readily take-out from a major suit into a minor suit at the level of ‘Two’ unless a five-carder is shown. 1968 A. Diment Bang Bang Birds vii. 119 He knotted the tie, from a very minor public school, round his stiff collar. 1970 New Yorker 28 Feb. 32/1, I played minor-league baseball in Valdosta, Georgia—Class D. 1972 N.Y. Times 1 June 55/3 The New York Raiders of the World Hockey Association yesterday signed a smallish minor-leaguer named Alton White. 1973 E. Lemarchand Let or Hindrance xiii. 162 The accident had happened on an unfrequented minor road. 1973 D. Chandler Marlborough xv. 318 Fourth are ‘minor Tactics’—the actual fighting methods employed at unit level to gain a local success. |
b. In less definite sense: Comparatively small or unimportant; not to be reckoned among the greater or principal individuals of the kind. (Not now used with reference to physical or spatial magnitude, exc. as this involves importance.) Often in minor poet.
A favourite use with Sir T. Browne, and common in subsequent writers.
| 1623 B. Jonson Time Vind. (1640) 95 The unletter'd Clarke! major and minor Poet! 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §1 Neither in the name of Multitude do I onely include the base and minor sort of people. 1646 ― Pseud. Ep. v. xiii. 254 Petty errors and minor lapses. a 1682 ― Tracts (1684) 36 The providence of Nature hath provided this shelter for minor fishes. 1693 Humours Town 36 Gaining the Author..Reputation..with the Minor Criticks. Ibid. 106 Minor Authors, Beaux, and the rest of the illiterate Blockheads. a 1734 North Exam. iii. vii. §65 (1740) 551 The Troubles that fell upon the Minor Abhorrers. 1771 Junius Lett. xlv. (1788) 257 The minor critic, who hunts for blemishes. 1780 Burke Sp. Econ. Reform Wks. III. 262 These minor principalities. 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm II. 596 Three principal cross-rails..besides a minor-rail. 1860 Cornh. Mag. Dec. 745 A minor theatre. Ibid. 750 The minor parts will be mistakenly rendered or slurred. Ibid., Your minor gentlemen may walk about in palatial drawing⁓rooms with hats upon their heads [etc.]. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times xxix. II. 387 The air was filled with the voices of minor singers. 1897 Spectator 27 Nov. 771 Herrick, Crashaw, Christopher Smart, and, in our own time, Rossetti, would be ranked as minor poets because of a certain aloofness from the great human concerns. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 751 In all minor neuralgias. |
† c. St. James (the) minor: = St. James the Less (see less a. 3). Obs.
| ? 14.. Stasyons of Jerus. 515 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 362 This was James þe mynoure. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 205 St. James the Minor, first Patriarch of Jerusalem. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Thus we say, St. James minor; Asia minor. |
d. Ent. In collectors' names of certain moths.
| 1775 M. Harris Eng. Lepidoptera 9 Beauty, minor. 1869 E. Newman Brit. Moths 398 The Minor Shoulder-knot (Epunda viminalis). |
e. Surgery. minor operations, those operations which do not involve danger to life (Syd. Soc. Lex. 1890); hence, minor operation or minor operating instrument, an instrument for the performance of such operations. minor surgery, the smaller operations required in the treatment of slight wounds and injuries (Ibid.).
| 1862 Catal. Exhib. ii. xvii. 125/2 Minor Operating Instruments, a complete set. 1895 Arnold's Catal. Surg. Instr. 45 Minor operation and hernia instruments. |
f. Football. minor point: A ‘try’ (in the Rugby game). Also, see quot. 1899.
| 1896 Field 1 Feb. 172/2 Ashford improving on the minor point by kicking a splendid goal. 1899 Macnaghten in Football (Badm. Libr.) 39 In the Eton field game there are thus two possible points to be scored—first the major point, or ‘goal’,..and the minor point, or ‘rouge’, three of which are equivalent to a goal. |
3. Math. † a. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1571 Digges Pantom. iv. X iv b, The diameter of the comprehending sphere being a line rationall, the Icosaedrons side is a line irrationall, called of Euclide Minor. Ibid. Y j, The comprehending spheres diameter being rational, his conteyning circles semidiameter is an irrational of that kinde which Euclide calleth Minor. |
b. minor axis (of an ellipse): the axis perpendicular to the major or transverse axis, and passing through the centre.
| 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xi. 15 The difference between major and minor axis being ·012 of an inch. 1885 C. Leudesdorf Cremona's Proj. Geom. 275 The polar reciprocal of an ellipse (hyperbola) with respect to a circle having its centre at a focus and its radius equal to half the minor (conjugate) axis is the circle described on the major (transverse) axis as diameter. |
c. minor determinant: a determinant whose matrix is formed from that of another determinant by erasing one or more rows and columns.
| 1850 Sylvester in Philos. Mag. Nov. XXXVII. 365 Now conceive any one line and any one column to be struck out, we get..a square, one term less in breadth and depth than the original square; and by varying in every possible manner the selection of the line and column excluded, we obtain, supposing the original square to consist of n lines and n columns, n2 such minor squares, each of which will represent what I term a First Minor Determinant relative to the principal or complete determinant. Now suppose two lines and two columns struck out from the original square... These constitute what I term a system of Second Minor Determinants; and..we can form a system of rth minor determinants by the exclusion of r lines and r columns. |
4. Logic. minor term: the subject of the conclusion of a categorical syllogism. minor premiss, minor proposition: that premiss of a syllogism which contains the minor term.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 152 For the same purpose the minor proposition must bee denyed. 1650 Baxter Saints' R. ii. vi. §1 (1651) 250 The Major Proposition will not sure be denied... All the work therefore will lie in confirming the Minor. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Syllogism, They [i.e. the two propositions of a syllogism] are both called..premises..and.. both are called antecedents, only the first the major, and the latter the minor. 1827 Whately Logic iii. (ed. 2) 96 The proper order is to place the Major premiss first, and the Minor second; but this does not constitute the Major and Minor premises; for that premiss (wherever placed) is the Major which contains the Major term, and the Minor, the Minor. 1843 Mill Logic ii. ii. §1 The premiss..which contains the middle term and the minor term is called the minor premiss of the syllogism. |
5. That constitutes the minority. Also rarely in predicative use: In a minority.
| 1642 Chas. I Answ. to Printed Bk. 13 That the Minor part of the Lords might joyn with the Major part of the House of Commons. 1659 Baxter Key Cath. xx. 99 If a minor party..may step into the Tribunal, and pass sentence against the Catholick Church [etc.]. 1774 T. Hutchinson Diary 3 Oct., A person had the major vote for Alderman... Another person..had the minor vote in the election. 1796 Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 150 There may be an equal division where I had supposed the republican vote would have been considerably minor. Ibid. 152 In every other, the minor will be preferred by me to the major vote. |
6. Mus. a. Applied to intervals smaller by a chromatic semitone than those called major; as minor third, minor sixth, minor seventh (and sometimes minor fourth and minor fifth, more usually called diminished or imperfect). Hence also applied to the note distant by a minor interval from a given note. Also, in acoustical theory, applied to the smaller of two intervals differing by a minute quantity, as minor tone (vibration ratio 10/9, being less by a comma than the major tone, 9/8); so, occasionally, minor semitone (usually called chromatic semitone). b. Applied to a common chord or triad containing a minor third between the root and the second note; hence to a cadence ending on such a chord. c. Denoting those keys, or that mode, in which the scale has a minor third (also, usually, a minor sixth, and often a minor seventh). (In naming a key, minor follows the letter, as A minor.)
| 1694 W. Holder Harmony (1731) 49 If A to B [lengths of strings] be as 6 to 5, they sound a Trihemitone, or Third Minor. Ibid. 50, 4/5 sound a Third Major,..5/8 a Sixth Minor. Ibid. 114 There are two sorts of Tones; viz. Major and Minor... Tone Minor (10 to 9)..is the difference between Third Minor and Fourth. Ibid. 121 From F to {sharp}F, is a Minor Hemitone, 25 to 24. Ibid. 129, 7th Minor..9 to 5. 1742 North Life Ld. Kpr. Guilford 298 He [sc. Holder] makes great ado about dividing Tones Major, Tones Minor, Dieses and Commas, with the Quantities of them. 1777 Sir W. Jones Ess. Imit. Arts Poems, etc. 200 The minor mode of D is tender. 1776 Burney Hist. Mus. I. Diss. i. 19 All the ancient modes were in what we should call minor keys. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XII. 511 note, Thus far we have only treated of fifths, fourths, thirds major and minor, in ascending. Ibid. 512/2 The first are called perfect chords major, the second perfect chords minor. 1811 Busby Dict. Mus. s.v. Key, The natural keys of C major and A minor. 1855 Browning Lovers' Quarrel xviii, We shall have the word In a minor third There is none but the cuckoo knows. 1878 W. H. Stone Sci. Basis Music v. §83, 25/24 = Minor Semitone. 1889 E. Prout Harmony (ed. 10) vii. §171 This form is known as the Harmonic Minor Scale, the other two being called Melodic Minor Scales. |
d. Minor chords and keys, as compared with major, have usually a mournful or pathetic effect; hence various figurative allusions.
| 1820 J. Severn in Keats Lett. (1958) II. 342 Here I must change to a Minor Key—Miss C fainted..I was very ill..Keats assended his bed. 1869 T. H. Higginson Army Life 222 This minor-keyed pathos used to seem to me almost too sad to dwell upon. 1874 Burnand My Time xvi. 142 His conversation was pitched in a minor key. 1900 Daily News 17 Oct. 4/7 ―'s address..was pitched in a painfully minor mode. |
7. Following the n. qualified. a. In certain combinations correlative with similar combinations of major, e.g. quint minor, tierce minor, bob-minor: see quint n.2, tierce, bob n.3 b. In boys' schools, appended (as a Latin adj.) to a surname to distinguish the younger (in age or standing) of two namesakes. (Abbreviated mi.)
| 1791 [implied in mi2]. 1852 Rowcroft Conf. Etonian I. 71 A member of the fifth form, Green minor by name. 1899 E. Phillpotts Human Boy 108, I bet she will, when Corkey minor turns up. |
III. 8. Under age; below the age of majority. Now rare.
| 1579–80 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 272 We, being yit minor, within the aige of fourtene yeiris..annull all the saidis infeftmentis. 1597 Skene De Verb. Sign. s.v. Homagium, [Homage] sulde be maid bi the vassall being minor, or maior, to his ouer-lorde. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII 145 At which time neuerthelesse the King was Minor. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. ii. 9 Many..were persons of minor age, or women. 1754–62 Hume Hist. Eng. I. xiv. 351 A wife..had made her minor son an instrument in this unnatural treatment of his father. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages (1872) II. 273 The public security..was thought incompatible with a minor king. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India ii. x. II. 431 A regard for the interests of the minor Raja. |
B. n. [The adj. used ellipt.]
1. A Franciscan friar. Cf. A. 1. Also Comb. Minor-Observantine = Observantine.
| 13.. Poem Times Edw. II 163 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 331 Menour and Jacobin, And freres of the Carme, and of Seint Austin. a 1325 Trental St. Gregory 11 in Anglia XIII. 303 To mynor ne to frere Austyn To caryne [read carme] ne to Jacobyn. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 330 He sent for Jon Comyn, þe lord of Badenauh; To Dounfres suld he come, vnto þe Minours kirke. 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 301 He..to the menours ordre went. c 1550 Bale K. Johan (Camden) 18 Jacobytes, Mynors, Whyght Carmes, and Augustynis. 1700 Tyrrell Hist. Eng. II. 882 The Preaching Friars and Minors exhorted him. 1761 Ann. Reg. 146 In the neighbourhood of Bagni..three convents of the brothers of Minor-observantins of the order of St. Francis. |
2. Logic. The minor term or the minor premiss or proposition of a syllogism.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 382 Gabriel schal blow his horne or þai han preuyd þe mynor. 1540 Coverdale Confut. Standish g viij, Of an euell Maior and Minor foloweth a weake conclusion. 1660 Bond Scut. Reg. 246 The Major no man can deny, the Minor is inviolable, and the Conclusion perfect and sound. 1711 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 175 The minor, or the assumption, is uncontroulable. 1840 Macaulay Clive Ess. (ed. Montague) II. 463 Here the Commons stopped. They had voted the major and minor of Burgoyne's syllogism; but they shrank from drawing the logical conclusion. |
3. A person under (legal) age; = infant 2.
| 1612 Davies Why Ireland, etc. 88 King Richard the second..for the first tenne yeares of his raigne was a Minor. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 5 June, My uncle then gave him to understand that I was still a minor. 1848 Kingsley Saint's Trag. iii. iii. 143 The minor's guardian guards the minor's lands. 1892 Gillespie Bar's Priv. Internat. Law (ed. 2) 312 A Dutch minor, who is by the law of Belgium major, cannot dispose of his real property in Belgium without [etc.]. |
| transf. and fig. c 1680 Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 35 Our christian being thus confirmed he is now looked upon in the eye of the church as no longer a minor. |
4. Mus. Short for minor key, mode, etc.: see A. 6.
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XII. 547 note, Such a piece is..upon A, with mi, la, and its minor. 1841 Jebb Lect. Cathedral Serv. ii. 15 A judicious use of the swell and a change from major to minor in the course of the Psalm. 1844 Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile Poems 1850 I. 83 Floated on a minor fine Into the full chant divine. |
b. In figurative or allusive use: see A. 6 d.
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Perplexed Music Poems 1850 I. 329 The strain unfolds In sad, perplexed minors. 1873 Browning Red Cott. Nt.-cap 268 Over this sample would Corelli croon, Grieving, by minors, like the cushat-dove. |
5. Math. † a. Arith. = subtrahend. Obs.
| 1612 Colson Gen. Treas., Art Arithm. B bb 2 b, Of Substraction... The first number is to be called the Maior, grosse sum, sum total, or superior number... The second is named the Minor... The third is called the Remainer. |
b. minor of a determinant = minor determinant (see A. 3 c).
| 1850 Sylvester in Philos. Mag. XXXVII. 366 The whole of a system of rth minors being zero. Ibid., We shall have only to deal with a system of first minors. |
6. A name for moths of the genus Miana.
| 1843 Humphreys & Westwood Brit. Moths I. 179 Miana literosa (the rosy minor). Miana strigilis (the marbled minor). 1862 F. O. Morris Brit. Moths II. 115–117. |
7. Rugby Football. A minor point.
| 1890 Stratford on Avon Herald 24 Oct. 2/1 No other points being scored, the ‘good old second’ were left victorious by 1 try and 2 minors to 1 minor. 1896 Field 1 Feb. 171/3 The bid for goal led to a minor being conceded by the visitors. |
8. In boys' schools: One's younger brother or ‘minor’ namesake.
| 1863 [Hemyng] Eton School Days vii. 82 Let my minor pass, you fellows!.. Here, Chudleigh, just make room there. |
9. Short for ‘minor theatre’, ‘minor work’.
| 1821 P. Egan Real Life in London I. vi. 92 Mr Gloss'em, who is a shining character in the theatrical world, at least among the minors of the metropolis. 1837 T. Hook Jack Brag xvii, She is engaged at one of the Minors, and calls herself, in the bills, Roseville. a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 153 Why is this play set down among Shakspeare's minors? 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Jan. 1/2 The vast galleries of the patented theatres and the cramped benches of the ‘minors’ were thronged with a new audience. |
10. In American universities and colleges, a subject or course of study to which less attention is given, or for which fewer credits are given, than for a major. Also, this subject seen a qualification. (See also quot. 1969.) Cf. major n.2 6.
| 1890 in T. W. Goodspeed Hist. Univ. Chicago (1916) 142 The plan of majors and minors..has been arranged in order to meet this difficulty. 1909 Webster, Minor,..a subject of study,..pursued by a candidate for a higher degree, less time being devoted to it than to the major subject. 1919 Univ. Texas Bull. No. 1925. 105 The student will note that it is possible to arrange his minor...[so] as to take in effect two majors. 1926 [see elective n. 2]. 1948 Ada (Okla.) Even. News 2 July 6/2 Alliene Pryor-Smith..will graduate at East Central in July, with a major in history and a minor in sociology. 1969 Amer. Heritage Dict., Minor... One studying a minor: a chemistry minor. |
11. In Bridge, = minor suit; also, a card in a minor suit.
| 1927 [see major a. 1 d]. 1958 Listener 4 Dec. 965/1 Which two aces?.. They are both of the same rank, i.e. both minors. 1960 Times 16 Nov. 17/4 A two-suiter in the minors only, with Diamonds as long as, or longer than the clubs. |
▪ II. minor, v. Chiefly N. Amer.
(ˈmaɪnə(r))
[f. minor a. and n.]
intr. Of a university student: to take, or qualify in, a minor (see prec., sense B. 10).
| 1934 in Webster. 1967 Oxf. Mag. 10 Feb. 205/1 [Canada] They intend to major in life sciences and minor in Phys. Ed. |
▪ III. minor
obs. or erron. f. mina2, miner, minot.