| 释义 |
▪ I. minion, n.1 and a.|ˈmɪnjən|
Forms: 6–7 minyon, mynyon(e, mynion, mineon, 6 mynny(e)on, mygnyon, mynon, mignyon, Sc. moynȝeoun, munȝ(e)oun, minȝeo(u)n, mynȝon, -ȝeoun, 7 minnion, (minione), 7–8 mignion, 7–9 mignon, 6– minion.
[a. F. mignon (also fem. mignonne) n. and adj.
The ultimate etymology is disputed; according to some the word is a derivative of OHG. minnja, minna love; others refer it to Celtic min- small.]
A. n.
1. A beloved object, darling, favourite.
a. A lover or lady-love. Chiefly, and in later use exclusively with contemptuous or opprobrious sense, a mistress or paramour. Now rare or Obs.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxv. 52 Quod scho, ‘Now tak me be the hand,..My chirrie and my maikles munȝoun’. 1548Latimer Ploughers B iiij b, They pastyme in their prelacies..with theyr daunsyng minyons. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. ii. 37 A mincing mineon, Who in her loosenesse tooke exceeding ioy. 1597J. Payne Royal Exch. 27 Sum gay professors (kepinge secret minions) do love there wyues..to avoyde shame. a1677Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 I. 250 What will not a fond lover undertake..for his minion although she be..the worst enemy he can have? 1815Byron Parisina x, The minion of his father's bride,—He, too, is fetter'd by her side.
b. One specially favoured or beloved; a dearest friend, a favourite child, servant, or animal; the ‘idol’ of a people, a community, etc. Often fig., as in minion of fortune. Now only in contemptuous sense.
1566Painter Pal. Pleas. I. 44 One of his dearest frends named Araspas which was..the very minion, playe felow and companion of Cyrus from his youth. 1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 150 b, I cannot abide the folly of some fathers who make some one of their children their darling and minion. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. i. 83 A Sonne..Who is sweet Fortunes Minion, and her Pride. Ibid. ii. 30 Gentlemen of the Shade. Minions of the Moone. c1626Dick of Devon i. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 13 That wonder of the land and the Seas minyon, Drake, of eternall memory. a1627Hayward Edw. VI (1630) 17 For enterprises by armes, he was the Minion of that time, so as few things he attempted, but he atchieued with honour. a1631Donne Serm. cxv. Wks. 1839 V. 24 John the minion of Christ upon earth. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 125 That pamper'd Steed, his Master's Joy, His Minion, and his daily Care. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. xc. 411 His disinterested practice,..and his great charity to the poor, render him the minion of the people. 1859Macaulay Pitt Biog. (1860) 176 Pitt was..the minion, the child, the spoiled child of the House of Commons. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. vii, All offered up sacrifices to the minion of fortune and the worm of the hour!
c. esp. A favourite of a sovereign, prince, or other great person; esp. opprobriously, one who owes everything to his patron's favour, and is ready to purchase its continuance by base compliances, a ‘creature’.
1501Douglas Pal. Hon. iii. lx, The kingis minȝeoun roundand in his eir, Hecht Veritie. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. IV, 7 b, Item the same kyng put oute divers shrives lawefully elected and put in their romes divers other of his owne minions. a1593Marlowe Edw. II (1598) B 3, The king is loue-sicke for his minion. a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 16 Her Ministers and Instruments of State..were many,..but they were onely Favourites, not Minions. 1639G. Daniel Vervic. 147 The fall Of Mignion Somerset. 1726Swift Gulliver iv. x, I had no Occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the Favour of any great Man, or of his Minion. 1828D'Israeli Chas. I, II. vii. 162 The portrait of Buckingham is usually viewed in the caricature of a royal minion. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. lxiii. 455 It is no wonder if he helps himself from the city treasury and allows his minions to do so.
d. transf. applied to things.
a1640Day Peregr. Schol. (1881) 65 Violets, roses, and lillies, and like mineons and darlings of the springe. 1699South Serm. (1842) III. 54 That one [thing] which is the sole minion of their fancy and the idol of their affections. 1793Coleridge Songs of Pixies iii, When noontide's fiery-tressed minion Flashes the fervid ray.
e. As a form of address: † (a) endearingly = darling, dear one (obs.); (b) contemptuously = hussy, jade; servile creature, slave.
1560Rolland Crt. Venus i. 194 Mynȝeoun, quhairfoir do ȝe sustene Sic displesure in hert be countenance. a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1598) 163 b, Minion said she (indeed I was a pretie one in those daies though I say it) I see a number of lads that loue you. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. i. ii. 92 You (Minion) are too saucie. 1600Heywood 2nd Pt. Edw. IV, P 2 b, Come away minion you shall prate no more. 1825Scott Betrothed vi, ‘Go hence, thou saucy minion’, said the monk. 1835Lytton Rienzi ii. iii, Peace, minion! draw back!
†2. A gallant, an exquisite. Obs.
1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. i. (1870) 117, I wyll get a garment, shal reche to my tayle; Than I am a minion, for I were the new gyse.
†3. A small kind of ordnance (see quot. 1644).
1547in Archæologia LI. 262 Gonnes of Brasse.. Culverynes vjx. Sacres vjx. Mynnyons xen. 1587Harrison England ii. xvi. (1877) i. 281 Minion poiseth eleauen hundred pounds, and hath three inches and a quarter within the mouth. 1644Whitelock Memorials (1853) I. 273 They lost five drakes, a minion, and two leather guns. 1644Nye Gunnery (1670) 77 Minions of the largest size, are three inches and a quarter Diameter in the mouth... The ordinary Minion, the mouth 3 inches high. 1894C. N. Robinson Brit. Fleet 217 Sakers (5-pounders) and minions (4-pounders) were mounted on skids.
4. a. A kind of peach, in full minion peach. [= F. pêche mignonne.] b. A small kind of lettuce.
1699Evelyn Kal. Hort., Aug. (ed. 9) 100 Minion Peach. Ibid. 170 Peaches and Nectarins..Maudlin, Mignon. 1706London & Wise Retir'd Gard. I. viii. 37 [Peaches.] The Minion is very large, but not so round as long. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 148 Of this sort there are two others, viz. George Lettices..and the Minion which is the least sort. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Peach-tree, The French mignon; this is a most excellent melting peach.
5. Printing. (In full minion type or minion letter.) The name of a type intermediate in size between ‘nonpareil’ and ‘brevier’. [So F. mignonne (mignone, Fournier Man. Typogr. 1766).]
1659Howell Vocab. li, Letters of all sorts, as..Non-paril, Minion, Breviere [etc.]. 1770[Luckombe] Hist. Printing 152 (Specimens of Printing Types) Minion. 1824J. Johnson Typogr. II. 83 Why this letter was denominated Minion, we have not yet been informed. 1865M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 72 A pocket Greek Testament in mignon letters. 1894D. C. Murray Making of Novelist 19 Three columns of leaded minion.
6. attrib. and Comb.:
a. (sense 1) as minion maintainer; minion-guided adj.; minion-like adv. (Cf. also B. 1.)
1599Broughton's Let. v. 17 An whoremaster and a minion maintainer. 1605Camden Rem. 18 Hitherto will our sparkefull Youth laugh at their great grandfathers English, who had more care to do well, than to speake minion-like. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. xvii. 23 That with the fern-crown'd Flood he [the Wey] minion-like doth play. 1773Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 455 Third Henry's feeble minion-guided rule.
†b. (sense 3), as minion bore, minion gun; minion drake, some kind of small cannon; minion proof a., proof against minion shot; minion shot, shot used with a minion, also, the range of a minion. Obs.
1633Winthrop New Eng. (1853) I. 148 A vessel..to be minion proof, and the upper deck musket proof. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. §248 Two small iron minion-drakes (all the artillery they had). 1648― St. Papers II. 415 The Vice-Admirals..were within minion shot one of the other. a1661Fuller Worthies, Cornw. (1662) i. 212 Two small Mynion-Drakes..were planted on a little Barrough within Randome-shot of the Enemy. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. 144 He had 2 or 3 small brass Guns of a Minion bore. 1727A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. I. xxx. 374 [I] had eight minion Guns to scour the Sands.
B. adj. Now rare. (Cf. mignon a.)
1. Dainty, elegant, fine, pretty, neat.
a. of a person, his actions, attributes, etc.
15..Songs Costume (Percy Soc.) 58 Off servyng men I wyll begyne... For they goo mynyon trym. 1529Frith Antithesis 100 b, Some enter [the fold] thorow their curious singinge and minyon dawnsinge. 1530Songs in Anglia XII. 591, I shal deck your mynyon face that yt shal shyne in euery place. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 125 A young ruffleer trymmyng hymselfe after y⊇ moste galaunte and mynion facion. Ibid. 189 b, A passyng faire damysel, beeyng a mynion dooer in syngyng. a1553― Royster D. (Arb.) 86 Who so to marry a minion Wyfe, Hath hadde good chaunce and happe. 1579Puttenham Partheniades xi, O mightye Muse, The mignionst mayde of mounte Parnasse. 1605Camden Rem. 28, I may be charged by the minion refiners of English, neither to write State-English, Court-English, nor Secretarie-English. 1718Rowe tr. Lucan i. 313 In silken Robes the minion Men appear, Which Maids and youthful Brides shou'd blush to wear. 1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 533 My lady,—who made..A downward crescent of her minion mouth.
b. of a thing, an animal.
1528St. Papers Hen. VIII, I. 307 His Hynes lykythe youre mynyon howse so well, that [etc.]. 1543Test. Ebor. (Surtees) VI. 175 To my lorde of Northfolke a mynyon geldinge. a1552Leland Itin. V. 123 Wreshil a very fayre and mynion Castle. 1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 264 What shall he regarde the lofty grace of Cicero?..or his mynion deuises and toyes?
2. Dearly loved, favourite, pet. (Cf. F. péché mignon, one's ‘darling sin’.)
a1716South Serm. (1823) III. 257 A secret love to some base minion lust. Ibid. VI. 167 When the tempter shall dress up any beloved minion sin. a1849H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) I. 89 They will have some pet production, some favourite passage, some minion thought.
[A.] [1.] [b.] Delete ‘Now only in contemptuous use’ and add: Also (without the connotation ‘favoured’) one who waits on another, an underling; a servant, officer, subordinate, or assistant.
1819Keats Hyperion i. 197 His winged minions in close clusters stood, Amaz'd and full of fear. 1901G. B. Shaw Admirable Bashville iii. 326, I rushed to play the peacemaker, when lo! These minions of the law laid hands on me. a1961Books of Month in Webster s.v., Invasion of their homes by governmental minions. 1983‘W. Trevor’ Fools of Fortune i. v. 86 He had a band of minions, stern-faced youths whom he'd imbued with his puritan zeal and invested with the authority of prefects. 1992Radio Times 16 May 37/3 I'm glad to say the noble lord is far too busy making multi-million dollar deals to read anything from no-hopers, and gets oppressed minions like me to fob them off as politely as possible.
▪ II. minion, n.2|ˈmɪnjən|
[a. F. minion (Cotgr.), f. L. minium.]
†1. = minium. Obs.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. iii. iii. (1651) 477 Let them paint their faces with minion and cerusse. 1654R. Codrington tr. Iustine xliv. 517 The Countrie doth abound with Lead, and Brass, and with Minion also. Ibid. xliv. 514.
2. Calcined iron ore, ‘used with lime as a water-cement’ (Ogilvie 1850).
1793Smeaton Edystone L. §213 What I used was the siftings of the iron stone, after calcination at the iron furnaces... This material, among the furnace men in these parts, is called Minion. Ibid. §214 Minion, or iron stone burnt. 1873Weale's Dict. Terms, Minion, the siftings of iron-stone after calcination at the iron-furnaces.
▪ III. † ˈminion, v. Obs. rare.
[f. minion n.1]
trans. To treat as a minion; to caress. Implied in † ˈminioning vbl. n.
1604Marston Malcontent iv. i, Sooner hard steele will melt with Southerne wind..Then women vow'd to blushlesse impudence, With sweet behauiour and soft minioning, Will turne from that where appetite is fixt.
▪ IV. minion
var. munnion, obs. f. mullion. |