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minnow

noun
/ˈmɪnəʊ/UK/ˈmɪnoʊ/US

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”)

  1. inherited from *men-✻ — “small”
  2. inherited from *muniwu✻ — “minnow; small fish”
  3. inherited from *mynwe✻
  4. inherited from menew

Definitions

  1. Any of certain small fish.

    • 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.

  2. A person or thing of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.

    • 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.
    • Heare you this Triton of the Minnoues?
    • [H]e was in the receipt of some per centage on its dealings; and, participating in all its facilities for the employment of money to advantage, was considered, by the minnows among the tritons of the East, a rich man.

  3. An artificial bait in the form of a small fish.

    • […] I have (which I will show you) an artificial minnow, that will catch a trout as well as an artificial fly, and it was made by a handsome woman that had a fine hand, and a live minnow lying by her: […]
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Very small

      Very small; tiny.

    2. To fish for minnows (noun sense 1 and subsenses).

    3. To fish, especially for trout, using minnows as bait.

The neighborhood

Derived

faster than a minnow can swim a dipper, minnock, minnow basher, minnow bashing, minnowed, mud minnow, pikeminnow, quicker than a minnow can swim a dipper, satinfin minnow, spottail minnow, minnower

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for minnow. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA