Word of the Day

: May 29, 2012

minim

noun MIN-im

What It Means

1 : a musical half note

2 : something very minute

3 : a unit of liquid capacity equal to 1/60 fluid dram

minim in Context

The nurse measured out 10 minims of the medication.

"Again and again in 'Coppelia' a dancer will pay attention to musical minims while disregarding the climax, shape or ending of a phrase." - From a review by Alastair Macaulay in The New York Times, March 30, 2011

Did You Know?

"Minim" derives from the Latin word "minimus," meaning "least" or "smallest." Musicians were the first to note its significance in the 15th century as a word for the half note. Chirographers soon adopted it as a word for a single downstroke in penmanship (such as any of the three in the letter m), and after careful analysis, apothecaries prescribed "minim" as a word for their smallest unit of liquid capacity. English speakers have also embraced "minim" as a general noun referring to things that are very small and as an adjective meaning "of the smallest size," as in "a minim amount."