minion

English

Etymology

1490, from Middle French mignon (“lover, royal favourite, darling”), from Old French mignon (“dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind”), from Frankish *minnju (“love, friendship, affection, memory”), from Proto-Germanic *minþijō, *mindijō (“affectionate thought, care”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnjən/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Homophone: minyan
• Rhymes: -ɪnjən
• Hyphenation: min‧ion

Noun

minion (countable and uncountable, plural minions)

1. A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.

   Synonyms: disciple, follower; see also Thesaurus:loyal follower

   The archvillain deployed his minions to simultaneously rob every bank in the city.

   • 2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 184:

     In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.

2. A sycophantic follower.
3. (obsolete) A loved one; one highly esteemed and favoured.
   • 1608, Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas his divine weekes and workes:

     God's disciple and his dearest minion

   • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Is this the Athenian minion whom the world / Voiced so regardfully?

4. (obsolete) An ancient form of ordnance with a calibre of about three inches.
   • 1647, Francis Beaumont, Philip Massinger, The Double Marriage (play), published 1717, page 19:

     Gun. My Cannons rung like Bells. Here's to my Mistress, The dainty sweet brass Minion: split their Fore-mast, She never fail'd.

5. (uncountable, typography, printing) The size of type between nonpareil and brevier, standardized as 7-point.
6. Obsolete form of minium.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     Of philosophers and scholars priscae sapientiae dictatores, I have already spoken in general terms, those superintendents of wit and learning, men above men, those refined men, minions of the muses.

Derived terms

• miniondom
• (type size): minionette
• minionhood
• minioning
• minionish
• minionlike
• minionly
• minionship

 

Translations

loyal servant of another more powerful being

• Albanian: favorit
• Arabic: تَابِع (tābiʕ)
• Azerbaijani: sevimli (az)
• Bulgarian: фаворит (bg) (favorit)
• Catalan: adlàter, esbirro m or f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奴才 (zh) (núcái)，奴仆 (zh) (núpú)

• Czech: oblíbenec
• Danish: håndlanger c
• Dutch: ondergeschikte (nl)
• Esperanto: sbiro
• Estonian: käsilane
• Finnish: käskyläinen (fi)
• French: subalterne (fr) m or f, sous-fifre (fr) m, séide (fr) m
• Galician: lacaio
• German: Ergebener m, Untergebener (de) m, Lakai (de) m
• Greek: ακόλουθος (el) m (akólouthos), ευνοούμενος (el) m (evnooúmenos)
• Hebrew: מְשָׁרֵת (he)
• Hindi: wafadar (wafadar)
• Hungarian: csatlós (hu), samesz (hu), fogdmeg (hu)
• Indonesian: kaki tangan (id), antek (id)
• Italian: lacché m or f
• Japanese: 子分 (ja) (こぶん, kobun)
• Korean: 앞잡이 (ko) (apjabi)
• Latin: satelles (la) m or f
• Latvian: mīlulis
• Malay: orang suruhan
• Mongolian: шадар (mn) (šadar)
• Polish: sługa (pl) m pers
• Portuguese: favorito (pt), lacaio (pt) m
• Romanian: răsfățat (ro)
• Russian: ве́рный слуга́ m (vérnyj slugá), шестёрка (ru) (šestjórka), приспе́шник m (prispéšnik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: штићеник, љубимац

  Roman: štićenik, ljubimac (sh)

• Slovak: obľúbenec m
• Spanish: lacayo, súbdito (es), sirviente (es), subalterno (es)
• Swedish: hejduk (sv) c, skyddsling (sv) c, tjänare (sv) c, underlydare c
• Tagalog: kampon (tl), alagad (tl)
• Thai: ลูกสมุน, สมุน (th) (sà-mǔn), ลิ่วล้อ (th) (lîu-lɔ́ɔ), ข้าราชการผู้น้อย (kâa râat-chá-gaan pôo nói)
• Turkish: dalkavuk (tr)
• Ukrainian: фавори́т m (favorýt)
• Vietnamese: kẻ nô lệ

sycophantic follower

• Bulgarian: раболепен слуга (rabolepen sluga)
• Dutch: slaafs volgeling, hielenlikker (nl)
• Finnish: lakeija (fi); perseennuolija (fi) (vulgar)
• French: laquais (fr)
• German: Günstling (de) m
• Hungarian: tányérnyaló (hu), talpnyaló (hu), kegyenc (hu)
• Indonesian: kacung (id)
• Italian: tirapiedi (it) m
• Polish: pomagier (pl) m pers, sługus (pl) m pers, pachołek (pl) m
• Russian: холу́й (ru) m (xolúj)
• Serbo-Croatian: poslušnik (sh) m
• Spanish: acólito (es), sicario (es), sicofante (es)

7-point type

• Catalan: glossilla (ca) f
• Dutch: kolonel (nl)
• French: mignone, mignonne (fr)
• German: Kolonel m, Colonel, Mignon (de)
• Hungarian: kolonel (hu)
• Spanish: miñona, glosilla

Adjective

minion (comparative more minion, superlative most minion)

1. (obsolete) Favoured, beloved; "pet".
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], book 1, p.148, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     These favours, with the commodities that follow minion Courtiers, corrupt […] his libertie, and dazle his judgement.

Chuukese

Etymology

Borrowed from English million.

Numeral

minion

1. million

Welsh

Etymology

From min +‎ -ion.

Noun

minion

1. plural of min

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
minion	finion	unchanged	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.