miniver
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
from Old French menu vair (“squirrel, squirrel fur”), from menu (“small”) + vair (“a type of fur”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɪnɪvə/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈmɪnɪvɚ/
Noun[edit]
miniver (countable and uncountable, plural minivers)
- A light gray or white fur used to trim the robes of judges or state executives, also used in medieval times.
- 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “j”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XII:
- Thenne came forth a lykely knyghte and wel apparaylled in scarlet furred with myneuer / And anone as he sawe syr launcelot / he demed that he shold be oute of his wytte / And thenne he said with fayre speche good man leye doune that swerd / for as me semeth / thow haddest more nede of slepe and of warme clothes / than to welde that swerd / As for that said syr Launcelot come not to nyȝ for and thow doo wete thou wel I will slee the
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Translations[edit]
a light gray or white fur
References[edit]
- ^ Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (menu, volume 5, page 245, column 3)
- “miniver”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.