minnow
/ˈmɪnoʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.62 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person or thing of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.
noun
A person or thing of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.
Example Sentences
- "I have obſerved, as I have ſat by a ſpout of vvater, vvhich decſends from a ſtone trough about tvvo feet into a ſtream belovv, at particular ſeaſons of the year, a great number of little fiſh called minums, or pinks, throvv themſelves about tvventy times their ovvn length out of the vvater, expecting to get into the trough above."
- "I wonder King George is let venture down on this coast, where he might be snapped up in a moment like a minnow by a her'n, so near as we be to the field of Boney's vagaries!"
- "During the past week he had indulged in sundry sly purchases, […] They included […] a remarkable collection of fishing tackle, which the sporting-goods man had declared fitted to catch anything that swam, from a whale to a minnow."
- "Most minnows are small fish with cycloid scales, soft rays supporting their fins, and toothless jaws. Some possess barbels on their upper jaw, and many species develop nuptial tubercles during the breeding season. […] Minnows are arguably the most difficult group of freshwater fishes to identify, in part because they are often small and thus the characters distinguishing them are correspondingly small."
- "In quiet, sheltered places, where the water is clear but does not run too swiftly, the ‘minnie,’ as the stickleback is locally called, makes its nest by the bank. […] On these fibres the ova are deposited, and they are then either purposely partly covered with sand by the minnie, or else the particles that are brought down by the current gather over the bundle of fibres and conceal it, excepting one small spot."
- "Let him denie that there was another shewe made of the little minnow his Brother, Dodrans Dicke, at Peter-houſe, called, Duns furens. Dick Harvey in a frenſie."
Etymology
The noun is derived from Late Middle English menew, menowe (“small fish; (specifically) common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus); or stickleback (possibly the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus)”), from Old English *mynwe, an oblique form of *mynu, a variant of myne (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *muniwu (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small”). Possibly influenced by Anglo-Norman menu (“small”) and Old French menu (“small”), and English minim (“anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like”). The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. Cognates * Middle Low German mone, möne (Dutch meun, West Frisian meun) * Old High German muniwa, munuwa, munewa (modern German Münne (“minnow”)) * Latin mēna (“small sea-fish”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmɪnoʊ/
- British English: /ˈmɪnəʊ/
Usage
- American usage
- Australian usage
- New Zealand usage
- British usage
- Intransitive verb
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
faster than a minnow can swim a dipper
minnow basher
minnow bashing
mud minnow
quicker than a minnow can swim a dipper
satinfin minnow
spottail minnow