minimus

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin . See minim.

Noun

minimus (plural minimi)

1. (obsolete) A being of the smallest size.
   • William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

     Get you gone, you dwarf;
     You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
     You bead, you acorn.

2. (dated) The youngest pupil in a school having a particular surname.

   Jones Minimus wants to join the rowing team.

3. (anatomy) The little finger; the fifth digit, or that corresponding to it, in either the manus or pes.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “minimus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

---

Latin

Etymology

Related to minuō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ni.mus/, [ˈmɪnɪmʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ni.mus/, [ˈmiːnimus]

• Audio (Classical):

  (file)

Adjective

minimus (feminine minima, neuter minimum, positive parvus); first/second declension

1. least, smallest

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Number	Singular				Plural
Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	minimus	minima	minimum		minimī	minimae	minima
Genitive	minimī	minimae	minimī		minimōrum	minimārum	minimōrum
Dative	minimō		minimō		minimīs
Accusative	minimum	minimam	minimum		minimōs	minimās	minima
Ablative	minimō	minimā	minimō		minimīs
Vocative	minime	minima	minimum		minimī	minimae	minima

Antonyms

• maximus

Descendants

• Catalan: mínim
• English: minimum
• French: minime, minimum
• Galician: mínimo
• German: Minimum
• Italian: minimo
• Old French: merme
• Portuguese: mínimo
• Spanish: mínimo

References

• “minimus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “minimus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• minimus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) the faintest suspicion: suspicio tenuissima, minima