Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Minor?

\Mi"nor\, a. [L., a comparative with no positive; akin to AS. min small, G. minder less, OHG. minniro, a., min, adv., Icel. minni, a., minnr, adv., Goth. minniza, a., mins, adv., Ir. & Gael. min small, tender, L. minuere to lessen, Gr. ?, Skr. mi to damage. Cf. {Minish}, {Minister}, {Minus}, {Minute}.] 1. Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller; of little account; as, minor divisions of a body. 2. (Mus.) Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third. {Asia Minor} (Geog.), the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine, or Black Sea, on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south. {Minor mode} (Mus.), that mode, or scale, in which the third and sixth are minor, -- much used for mournful and solemn subjects. {Minor orders} (Eccl.), the rank of persons employed in ecclesiastical offices who are not in holy orders, as doorkeepers, acolytes, etc. {Minor scale} (Mus.) The form of the minor scale is various. The strictly correct form has the third and sixth minor, with a semitone between the seventh and eighth, which involves an augmented second interval, or three semitones, between the sixth and seventh, as, ^{6/F}, ^{7/G[sharp]}, ^{8/A}. But, for melodic purposes, both the sixth and the seventh are sometimes made major in the ascending, and minor in the descending, scale, thus:
\Mi"nor\, n. 1. A person of either sex who has not attained the age at which full civil rights are accorded; an infant; in England and the United States, one under twenty-one years of age. Note: In hereditary monarchies, the minority of a sovereign ends at an earlier age than of a subject. The minority of a sovereign of Great Britain ends upon the completion of the eighteenth year of his age. 2. (Logic) The minor term, that is, the subject of the conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms, the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of money from another by gaming partakes of meanness. 3. A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.