minion
noun
- type of cannon
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmɪnjən/
adj
Etymology: First use appears c. 1490, from Middle French mignon (“lover, royal favourite, darling”), from Old French mignon (“dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind”), from Frankish *minnju (“love, friendship, affection, memory”), from Proto-Germanic *minjō (“affectionate thought, care”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”). Doublet of mignon.
- Favoured, beloved; "pet".
“These favours, with the commodities that follow minion Courtiers, corrupt[…]his libertie, and dazle his judgement.”
noun
Etymology: First use appears c. 1490, from Middle French mignon (“lover, royal favourite, darling”), from Old French mignon (“dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind”), from Frankish *minnju (“love, friendship, affection, memory”), from Proto-Germanic *minjō (“affectionate thought, care”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”). Doublet of mignon.
- A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.
“The archvillain deployed his minions to simultaneously rob every bank in the city.”
“In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.”
- A sycophantic follower.
- The size of type between nonpareil and brevier, standardized as 7-point.
- A loved one; one highly esteemed and favoured.
“God's disciple and his dearest minion”
“Is this the Athenian minion whom the world / Voiced so regardfully?”
- An ancient form of ordnance with a calibre of about three inches.
“Gun. My Cannons rung like Bells. Here's to my Mistress, The dainty sweet brass Minion: split their Fore-mast, She never fail'd.”
- Obsolete form of minium.
“Of philosophers and scholars priscae sapientiae dictatores, I have already spoken in general terms, those superintendents of wit and learning, men above men, those refined men, minions of the muses.”