Meaning and Origin
What does the name Minor mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
User Submitted Origins
User Submitted Meanings
- A submission from the United Kingdom says the name Minor means "Love".
- Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller; of little account; as, minor divisions of a body.
- [Mus] Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third.
Etymology: L., a comparative with no positive; akin to AS. min small, G. minder less, OHG. minniro, a., min, adv., Icel. minni, a., minnr, adv., Goth. minniza, a., mins, adv., Ir. & Gael. min small, tender, L. minuere to lessen, Gr. miny`qein, Skr. mi to damage. Cf. Minish Minister Minus Minute
- A person of either sex who has not attained the age at which full civil rights are accorded; an infant; in England and the United States, one under twenty-one years of age.
- [Logic] The minor term, that is, the subject of the conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms, the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of money from another by gaming partakes of meanness.
- A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.
Note: ☞ In hereditary monarchies, the minority of a sovereign ends at an earlier age than of a subject. The minority of a sovereign of Great Britain ends upon the completion of the eighteenth year of his age.
- A young person of either sex
- Have as one's secondary field of study ("in collee she minored in mathematics")
- Relatively moderate, limited, or small
- Inferior in number or size or amount ("a minor share of the profits" and "Ursa Minor")
- Lesser in scope or effect ("had minor differences" and "a minor disturbance")
- Not of legal age ("minor children")
- (of a scale or mode) having half steps between the second and third degrees, and (usually) the fifth and sixth degrees, and the seventh and eighth degrees ("the minor keys" and "in B flat minor")
- Of your secondary field of academic concentration or specialization
- Of lesser importance or stature or rank ("a minor poet", "had a minor part in the play", "a minor official", "many of these hardy adventurers were minor noblemen", and "minor back roads")
- Of lesser seriousness or danger ("suffered only minor injuries", "some minor flooding", and "a minor tropical disturbance")
- Warranting only temporal punishment
- Of the younger of two boys with the same family name ("Jones minor")
From Latin minor (“rather small”)
- A person who is below the legal age of majority, consent, criminal responsibility or other adult responsibilities and accountabilities.
- It is illegal to sell weapons to under the age of eighteen.
- A subject area of secondary concentration of a student at a college or university, or the student who has chosen such a secondary concentration.
- (mathematics) determinant of a square submatrix
- (British slang, dated) A younger brother (especially at a public school).
- (zoology) A small worker in a leaf-cutter ant colony, sized between a minim and a media.
minor was also found in the following language(s): Interlingua, Italian, Latin, and Swedish