单词 | minuscule |
释义 | minuscule/ˈmɪnəskjuːl /(also miniscule) adjective 1Extremely small; tiny: a minuscule fragment of DNA...
Synonyms tiny, minute, microscopic, nanoscopic, very small, little, micro, diminutive, miniature, baby, toy, midget, dwarf, pygmy, Lilliputian, infinitesimal; Scottish wee informal teeny, teeny-weeny, teensy, teensy-weensy, weeny, itsy-bitsy, itty-bitty, eensy, eensy-weensy, tiddly British informal titchy North American informal little-bitty 1.1 informal So small as to be insignificant: he believed the risk of infection was minuscule...
2Of or in lower-case letters, as distinct from capitals or uncials.The small (minuscule) letters are earth symbols- the (majuscule) capital letter A is a picture of the missing capstone from Khufu's pyramid....
2.1Of or in a small cursive script of the Roman alphabet, with ascenders and descenders, developed in the 7th century ad.Speed of writing changed the appearance of many letters, however, and along with the introduction by the 4th century of loops and linking of letters this formed the basis for the development of minuscule scripts....
noun [mass noun] 1Minuscule script: the humanistic hands of the 15th century were based on the Carolingian minuscule...
1.1 [count noun] A small or lower-case letter.The written and printed form of English has two interlocking systems of letters: large letters, known variously as capitals, upper-case letters, majuscules, and small letters, or lower-case letters, minuscules....
UsageThe standard spelling is minuscule rather than miniscule. The latter form is a very common one (accounting for almost half of citations for the term in the Oxford English Corpus), and has been recorded since the late 19th century. It arose by analogy with other words beginning with mini-, where the meaning is similarly ‘very small’. It is now so widely used that it can be considered as an acceptable variant, although it should be avoided in formal contexts. Derivativesminuscular
OriginEarly 18th century: from French, from Latin minuscula (littera) 'somewhat smaller (letter)'. |
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