- minute
- [14] Latin minūtus ‘small’ was a
derivative of the verb minuere ‘lessen’ (source of
English diminish), which itself was based on the
element min- ‘small’. In medieval Latin the term
335 mistletoe
pars minuta prima ‘first small part’ was applied
to a ‘sixtieth part of a whole’ – originally of a
circle, later of an hour (likewise a second was
originally a secunda minuta, a sixtieth of a
sixtieth). Hence minūta itself came to be used for
the unit of time, and that was the original
meaning of minute when English acquired it via
Old French. Its use for ‘note, record’ may derive
from the Latin expression minuta scriptura,
which denoted the writing of a rough draft in
‘small’ writing. The adjective minute ‘small’
was an independent 15th-century borrowing
direct from Latin. A French descendant of
minūtus is the adjective menu ‘small’; its
extended sense ‘detailed’ has led to its noun use
for ‘list’, and the expression menu de repas
‘meal list’ has given English menu [19].
Other members of the extended family of
English words that come ultimately from Latin
min- include métier, mince, minim [15],
minimum [17], minister, minor, minstrel, minuet
[17], minus, minuscule [18], and minutia [15].
=> MENU, MÉTIER, MINCE, MINISTER, MINOR,
MINSTREL, MINUS, MINUSCULE
* * *The sixtieth part of an hour is so called as it is a minute (small) division. More precisely the word comes from the Latin phrase pars minuta prima, 'first minute part.' The second, when it came later, was thus the pars minuta secunda, 'second minute part.' The divisions were originally those of a circle, rather than those of an hour.
The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins. 2013.
