minoration 
minoration (mi-no-ra'shon), . [= F. iinnn- 
t'nlitni^= Sp. ntiiit>i'ttrii>ii = 1'^. mmorog&o = It. 
ininnrii;iinii-,<. LI,. iiiiiniriitiix n-), diminution, < 
minor OTA, diminish: sec unnoniti-.} \\. AleH- 
diminution. 
We now do hope the mercies of (tod will consider our 
degeinTatril irilr^rity nntu some mimrration of our of- 
fi-m-r!,. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., i. 2. 
2. In iiii-il., mild purgation by laxatives, 
minorative (mi'no-ra-tiv), a. and n. [= I'. //- 
iioratif. iiiinorativf, = Sp. Pg. iiiiiini-iilii'i>,\ea- 
ening, = It. iiiiniiriilii-n. minorative; as mimn-ii- 
t(ion) + -ive.] I. a. Mildly laxative: applied 
to certain medicines. 
II. n. A mildly laxative medicine. 
For a minoratine or gentle potion he took four hundred 
pound weight of colophoniac scammony. 
Urquhart, tr. of Rabelais, II. 33. (Dames.) 
minoress (mi'ngr-es), n. [< minor + -ess.] 1. 
A female under age. 2f. A nun under the rule 
of St. Clare. ( Ti/rirliill. ) (This word is found in the 
early printed editions of the "Romuunt of the Rose," 1. 
149. Moveresse appears in modern editions taken from the 
original French (Horn, of the Kose, 1. 141).] 
Minorite (mi'nor-it), u. and a. [< minor + 
-iff-.] I. n. A Franciscan friar; aMinor. See 
minor, n., 4. 
Some minorite among the clergy. 
Bp. Backet, Abp. Williams, U. 202. (Dames.) 
II. a. Belonging to the Franciscans. 
HVw movements within the bosom of the Church were 
more pregnant with auspicious augury for its reformation 
than the rise of the Minorite orders. 
J. Owen, Evenings with Skeptics, II. 881. 
minority (mi- or mi-uor'i-ti), n. ; pi. minoriiiis 
(-tiz). [= F. minority = Pr. menoretat = Sp. mi- 
itoridad = Pg. minoridade = It. minoritd, < ML. 
minorita(t-)s, a being less, minority, < L. minor, 
less: see minor.'] If. The state of being minor 
or smaller. 
From this narrow time of gestation [may) ensue a mi- 
Hority or smallness in the exclusion. 
Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., Ill 6. 
2. The minor part in number; the smaller of 
two aggregates into which a whole is divided 
numerically; a number less than half : opposed 
to majority. 
That minority ot the Scottish nation by the aid of which 
the government had hitherto held the majority down. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
him: great and excellent is 
merson. Address to Kossuth. 
Remember, sir, that ever 
in minorities. 
Specifically 3. The smaller of two related 
aggregates of persons; the minor division of 
any whole number of persons : as, the rights of 
the minority ; government by minorities. 
To give the minority a negative upon the majority, 
which is always the case where more than a majority is 
requisite to a decision, is . . . to subject the sense of the 
greater number to that of the lesser. 
A. Hamilton, The Federalist, No. 22. 
4. The state of being a minor or not come of 
age, and therefore legally incapacitated for the 
performance of certain acts ; the period or in- 
terval before one is of full age, generally the 
period from birth until twenty-one years of age 
(see age, 3); in Scots law, the interval between 
pupilarity and majority. See minor, n., 1. 
What mean all those hard restraints and shackles put 
upon us in our minority. South, Works, IVT v. 
King Edmund dying, his brother Edred in the Minority 
of his Nephews was crowned at Kingston upon Thames. 
Baker, Chronicles, p. 11. 
Minority representation. See proportional represen- 
tation, under representation. 
minorship (mi'nor-ship), . [< minor + -ship.] 
The state of being a minor. 
Minotaur (min'6-tar), n. [< ME. Minotaur, < 
OF. Minotaur, P. Minotaure = Sp. Pg. It. Mi- 
iiotnuro, < L. Minotaurus, < Or. Wtv6ravpof, the 
Minotaur, appar. < M/WJC, Minos, a legendary 
king and lawgiver of Crete, + rat'pof, a bull. 
But this is perhaps a popular etym. of some 
name not understood.] In Gr. myth., a mon- 
ster represented as having a human body and 
the head of a bull, who was the offspring of 
Pasiphae, wife of Minos, and a bull sent by Po- 
seidon. He was confined In the Cretan labyrinth and 
fed with human flesh, devoured the seven youths and 
seven maidens whom Minos compelled the Athenians 
to send him periodically as tribute, and was killed by 
the hero Theseus, a member of the last company so sent, 
who escaped from the labyrinth by the aid of Ariadne, 
daughter of Minos. Hence, in modern literature, the 
name is used to characterize any devouring or destroying 
agency of which the action is in some way comparable to 
that attributed to the Cretan monster. 
And by his [Theseus's] baner born is his penoun 
of gold ful richr, in which ther was i-bete 
The Minotaur which that he slough in Crete. 
Chaucer, Knight's Tale. 1. li-j. 
3779 
Thou may'st not wander In that labyrinth : 
There Minotaun and ugly treasons lurk. 
Shale., I Hen. VI., v. 8. 189. 
minourt, . A Middle English form of un,,. ,. 
minsitivet, ". [Appar. irrcg. < miV, minee, + 
iiif .] Mincing; uflVrtcd; servile. 
\ ,-VIT say your lordship, nor your honour ; but jron, and 
><IM, my lord, and my lady: the other they count too sim- 
ple :n..l ininntite. B. Jonson, Poetuter, iv. 1. 
minster (niin'stt'T), . [<ME. mhislrr. iHijiixli-i; 
inn null r. mi-ii.-iln-. i ti-.,< AS. mynster = D. mun- 
*t< i' = M U i. nitinxter = OHG. munuxturi, nnniix- 
tri, monaxtri, MHG. 6. miinsler = OF. mustier, 
moustier, F. moutier, < LL. monasterium, < (ir. 
IwvaaTTipiHv, a monastery : see monastery.'] Ori- 
ginally, a monastery ; afterward, the church of 
a monastery; also, from the fact that many 
such churches, especially in Great Britain, be- 
came cathedrals, a cathedral church which had 
such an origin: as, York minuter; hence, any ca- 
thedral: as, the minster of Strasburg. it is found 
also in the names of several place* which owe their origin 
to a monastery : as, Westminster, Leonwuter. 
The same nyght the kynge comaunded the children to 
go wake In the chelff mynster till on the morowe be-fore 
mease, that no lenger he wolde a-bidc. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.\ II. 374. 
The Ages one great minster teem, 
That throbs with praise and prayer. 
LtHcell, Godminster Chimes. 
minstraciet, An old form of minstrelsy. 
minstrel (min'strel), n. [< ME. minstrel, myii- 
xln-tlc, minxtral, mynstral, menstral, munxtral, 
minis tral, menestral, < OF. menestral, menettrel, 
an ni-xterel, F. mfnestrel = Pr. menestral = Sp. 
menestral, menestril, ministril = Pg. ministrel, 
menestrel, menistrel = It. ministrcllo, minestrel- 
In, < ML. ministralitt (also, after Rom. , ministrel- 
Im), a servant, retainer, jester, singer, player, 
< L. minister, a servant, 
attendant : see minister. 
Cf. ML. ministerialis in 
same sense, < ministeri- 
um, service: see ministe- 
rial.] 1. A musician, 
especially one who sings 
or recites to the accom- 
paniment of instruments. 
Specifically, (n the middle ages, 
the minstrels were a class who 
devoted themselves to the 
amusement of the great In cas- 
tle or camp by singing ballads 
or songs of love and war, some- 
times of their own composition, 
with accompaniment on the 
harp, lute, or other instrument, 
together with suitable mimicry 
and action, and also by story- 
telling, etc. The intermediate 
class of professional musicians 
from which the later minstrels 
sprang appeared in France as 
early as the eighth century, and 
was oy the Norman conquest In- 
troduced into England, where 
It was assimilated with the 
Anglo-Saxon gleemen. Every- 
where the social Importance of 
the minstrels slowly degener- 
ated, until in the fifteenth cen- 
tury they had formed them- , UC5 mnsK1CTS , 
selves generally into gilds Of France ; I 3 th century. 
itinerant popular musicians 
and mountebanks. In England they fell so low in esteem 
that In K97 they were classed by a statute with rogues, 
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars ; but In France their gilds 
were maintained until the revolution. See glreman, trim- 
batlmir, trouvere, aiiAjonoleur. 
Whan the servise was ffynisshed, the kynge Arthur and 
the Baronns returned in to the paleys, where-as was grete 
pli'ntf of mvnftraUes, and iogelours, and other. 
Merlin (E. E. T. 8.\ UL 4M. 
Ye'll gl'e the third to the minstrel 
That plays before the king. 
Young Akin (Child's Ballads, I. 184). 
Wake ye from your sleep of death, 
Minstrels and bards of other days ' 
Scott, Bard's Incantation. 
But while the miimtrel proper accompanied his lord to 
the field and shared with him the danger and the honour 
of his warlike exploits, the connection between him and 
the humbler kind of entertainer [the jongleurj, who was 
still the servant of the multitude rather than of a par- 
ticular lord, cannot have been wholly forgotten. 
A. W. Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit., I. IS. 
Hence 2. Any poet or musician. [Poetical.] 
3. Originally, one of a class of singers of 
negro melodies and delineators of life on the 
Southern plantations which originated in the 
United States about 1830: called negro min- 
strels, although they are usually white men 
whose faces and hands are blackened with 
burnt cork. The characteristic feature of such a troupe 
"i li.uxl is the middle-man or interlocutor, who leads the 
t;ilk iinil ivi'> tin i-ui's, and the two end-men, who usually 
perform on the tambourine and the bones, and between 
"hom the indispensable conundrums and jokes are ex- 
Minstrel. From the Mai- 
son des Musiciens, Rheims, 
mint 
rhanged. As now conitltntn). a neirro-mlnstrel tnmp 
retain* Inn llitlcof it* origin*! character except the Miu-k 
faces and the old jokes. 
minstrel-squire (niinMrrl-skwir), . A min- 
*ti-cl who was iittaclicd to one particular person, 
minstrelsy (min'stn-l-si;, n. [< ME. minstral- 
<-ii. uii/Nxtrtili-i/f, iiu-Hxii-iilrit, Hinistracie, men- 
xirui-iii; <(<-., < OK. mene*traltrie, minstrelsy, < 
mi in. -iiriil. miiiMivl: see minxtrfl.] 1. The art 
or occupation of minstrels; singing and play- 
ing in the manner of a minstrel; lyrical song 
and music. 
Holllche thanne with hU tract hljede to here tentea 
With inerthe of alle iMiutnwyt, and made hem atte*e. 
WUiam<>fPaUrne(V. E. T. 8.X I. 1296. 
When erery room 
Hath blaz'd with light, and bray'd with minttnlty. 
Shot., T. of A., U. 2. 170. 
Originally . . . the profewlon of the jocolator included 
all the arts attributed to the minstrels ; and accordingly 
his performance was called his minstrelsy In the reign of 
Edward II., anil even after he had obtained the appella- 
tion of a tregetour. Strvtt, .Sports and I'ustlmei, p. 287. 
2. An assemblage or company of minstrels ; a 
body of singers and players. 
So many maner minttracie at that marlage were. 
William n/ I'alerne (K. E7T. S.\ 1. 6010. 
The bride hath paced Into the hall 
Red as a rose Is the I 
Nodding their heads before her goes 
The merry minttreln. 
Coleridge, Ancient Mariner, I. 
3f. A collection of instruments used by min- 
strels. 
For sorwe of which he brak his mimtraleie, 
Bnthe harpe and lute, and glterne and sautrie. 
Chaucer, Manciple's Tale, I. 163. 
Lntte and rybybe, bothe gangande. 
And all mature of mynstralsye. 
Thomas of Bnteldoune (Child's Ballads, I. 10H). 
4. A collection or body of lyrical songs and bal- 
lad poetry, such as were sung by minstrels : as, 
Scott's " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." 
The body of traditional minstrelsy which commemorated 
the heroic deeds performed in these wars. 
Prescott, Ferd. and Isa., Int. 
mint 1 (mint), n. [OIK. mint, myiit, menet, mu- 
nct, < AS. mynet, mynit, mynyt (not *myut), a 
coin, coin, coinage, money (cf. mynet-gmiththf, 
a place for coinage, a mint), = OFries. menote, 
mente, monte, munte = D. munt = MLG. LG. 
nninte, monte = OHG. niinii-ti, muniz, MHG. G. 
miinse, aplace for coining money, a coin, = Icel. 
mynt, mint, = Sw. mynt, a place for coining 
money, a coin, money, = PS", mynt, a coin, 
money, miint, a place for coining money, = OF. 
loneie, monoie, F. monnaie (> E. money) = Pr. 
Sp. moneda = Pg. moeda = It. moneta, money, 
< L. moneta, a place for coining money, money, 
coin, < Moneta, a surname of Juno, in whose 
temple at Rome money was coined, lit. adviser, 
< monere, warn, advise: nee monisk, monitor. 
Cf. money, a doublet of mint 1 .] It. A coin; 
coin ; coined money ; money. 
Theea If me spende, or mynt for them recejrre, 
The sonner wol they brymme ayelne and brynge 
Forth pigges moo. 
I'alladita, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.\ p. go. 
2. A place where money is coined by public 
authority. The coining of money Is now considered a 
prerogative of government. In early times there were 
many mints in England, but now the only one in that conn- 
try is the Royal Mint, Tower Hill, London. The United 
States Mint was established by act of April 2d, 1792, and 
located at Philadelphia. Other mints have since been es- 
tablished at San Francisco. New Orleans, Canon City, and 
Denver (but the last two are, properly speaking, assay of- 
flcesX The I'nlted States Mint is a bureau of the Trea- 
sury Department, under the charge of an officer called the 
Director of the Mint. 
And so (vpon the matter) to set the mint on work, and 
tn glue way to new coiues of silner, which should bee 
then minted. Bacon, Hist. Hen. VIL, p. 215. 
In one higher roome of this Mini ... I saw fcrarteene 
marvailous strong chests, . . . in which is kept nothing but 
money. Coryat, Crudities, I. 242. 
3. Figuratively, a source of fabrication or in- 
vention. 
And haue a mint in their pragmatical! heads of such 
supersubtle innentlons. l"urchat, Pilgrimage, p. 89R. 
The busy mini 
Of our laborious thoughts is ever going, 
And coining new desires, (jttarlr*, Emblems, IL 2. 
4. A quantity such as a mint turns out ; a great 
supply or store: as, a mint of money. 
And so tassclled and so ruffled with a mint of bravery. 
A. D. Blaclmorc, Loma Doone, p. 129. 
5. [cap.] A place of privilege or asylum in 
Southwark, London, near the Queen's Prison, 
where persons sheltered themselves from jus- 
tice, under the pretext that this place was an 
ancient palace of the crown. (Rapalje and 
Isitrrence.) The privilege is now abolished. 
