While not all spellcheckers flag miniscule as a misspelling, minuscule still predominates in edited prose, and style manuals such as The AP Stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style prescribe minuscule, as does The New York Times. It is also an adverb meaning “additionally” as in “Further, when posting to a blog, one should not ramble,” or an adjective meaning “additional,” e.g. My paychecks at the burger joint were so minuscule that I quit to lead a life of crime. This variant dates to the end of the 19th century, and it now occurs … Leary or Leery – What’s the Correct Spelling? Learn a new word every day. minuscule. Note: When I wrote an email asking that the spelling be changed in the post, the Google email application automatically changed miniscule to minuscule. Minuscule is a loan word from Latin, where it was related to a word that meant rather small. without further ado. . While reading the article , I was trying to think of a mnemonic too — if I think of minuscule as a pal of minute (as in tiny, rather than as in 60 seconds), it helps. Home » Miniscule or Minuscule – Which Spelling is Correct? When talking about things that are small, people use the word mini. Singular Nonbinary ‘They’: Is it ‘they are’ or ‘they is’? Minuscule is an adjective that means very small. Minuscule or miniscule? It isn’t nearly as popular as minuscule, and some people just don’t like it. In fact, minuscule derives from the word minus and has nothing to with –mini, hence the spelling minuscule. See more. I will use outline the correct spelling and use the word in several example that demonstrate its proper context. Minuscule, so spelled, is an adjective that means very small. 'All Intensive Purposes' or 'All Intents and Purposes'? Don’t make me laugh! ‘The Caroline minuscule, however, had a relatively weak impact on the writing habits of Italian notaries, who remained faithful to the cursive style.’ ‘The letters of the new script, called the Carolingian minuscule, were written in upper and lower case, with punctuation and words were separated.’ Is it minuscule or miniscule? The OED has a separate entry for miniscule (noun and adjective), and includes citations from the late 19th and early 20th century: The miniscule is the prevailing character in the Latin manuscript of the ninth century. Minus is less. minuscule: [adjective] written in or in the size or style of minuscules. Though a few other insects have been shown statistically to have minute differences in wing size, the variances have been too miniscule for the human eye to detect. Minuscule (franz. Therefore, you can rest assured that minuscule is a legitimate spelling. We think some of them are minuscule, unimportant, and others, large and incriminating. The AP Style Book. Minuscule means very small. minuscule. Miniscule is a nonstandard variant that still shows up in published writing from time to time. Miniscule is … —Antiquary (a monthly antiquarian magazine published from 1880-1915 in London and New York), 1908. Is it minuscule or miniscule? The adjective minuscule is etymologically related to minus, but associations with mini- have produced the spelling variant miniscule. Looking at the Corpus, we've discovered that the spelling miniscule now makes up around 52% of the total use of the word. A minirecession is a recession with a lesser impact than a full recession. When talking about things that are small, people use the word mini. Primary English: Extending Knowledge in Practice reports that dictionaries began accepting miniscule during the later years of the twentieth century. Accessed 12 Nov. 2020. Fauci doesn't want people to worry about coronavirus, the danger of which is "just minuscule." But if one persists in arguing it is interchangeable with farther, then you must accept that the sentence “How fur is it into town?” has ascended from patois into proper English… and it hasn’t. Thus, the U in minuscule is often replaced with an extra I. For example, a small, short skirt is a miniskirt. I was surprised at this and had to look it up in my ten-and-a-half-pound Webster’s. The original form of the adjective meaning very small is minuscule. The Word spell checker, on the other hand, permits it to pass unchallenged. It’s one of those words where “logic” of a sort leads you astray. minuscule definition: 1. extremely small: 2. extremely small: 3. extremely small: . I’d written about “a miniscule difference,” meaning “a tiny difference.” I spelled the word the way I pronounce it: min-i-SKYOOL. What made you want to look up minuscule? Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Grammar It comes from a Latin word, minuscule, meaning ‘somewhat smaller’, but because minuscule means ‘very small’, many people naturally associate it with the word mini, and so … The popular British usage guide Fowler’s also suggests that writers avoid the spelling miniscule. I was being what Charles Elster (The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations) would call a dimbulb: [O]nly a dimbulb would intentionally write miniscule. What about miniscule? I will also show you a useful memory trick to help you when you are stuck choosing either miniscule or minuscule in your own writing. Wellbeing or Well-Being – Which is Correct? Each of the text letters already named has its own lower case or ‘miniscule’ letters. Learn more. Miniscule is a misspelling of the word minuscule. The spelling miniscule appears as early as the 1880s on the Ngram Viewer, but doesn’t show a rise until the 1930s, peaking in 1980 and then descending. Although some dictionaries may be wishy-washy about the matter, my two style guides agree that minuscule is the only correct spelling: The Chicago Manual of Style As you can see, miniscule has gained considerable traction since around 1940 or so. –. The AP Style Book What made you want to look up miniscule? Raymond, given that further is a “comparative of far” and means, according to the OED, “at, to, or by a greater distance” (1) and “over a greater expanse of space or time; for a longer way”(2), I think the restriction of further in terms of pushing an agenda, to promote, or to enhance is a lost cause. In your reading adventures, you may have seen the word spelled both ways. Here Be Dragons: A Creature Identification Quiz. How to use a word that (literally) drives some pe... Do you know what languages these words come from? When I learned the word in that context, I was taught to pronounce it mi-NUHS-kyool. Noun Minuscule derives from the Latin adjective minusculus, which means "rather small." For example, a small, short skirt is a miniskirt. ━Sarah McCoy, The Baker’s Daughter, Those levels, however, are minuscule compared to uranium concentrations found in uranium ore, according to scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey. In summary, Minuscule is the correct spelling. Learn a new word every day. Most of the time, though, it is a synonym of words like tiny and infinitesimal. It comes from a Latin word, minuscule, meaning ‘somewhat smaller’, but because minuscule means ‘very small’, many people naturally associate it with the word mini, and so spell it miniscule … . Said company includes AP Style, Chicago Style, The New York Times Style, Garner’s Modern English Usage, and Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage. You'll also get three bonus ebooks completely free. The misspelling miniscule has gained traction in recent years (see below), but minuscule continues to predominate in print and other sources as the standard spelling. Which is correct—minuscule or miniscule? This includes examples in printed sources such as newspapers and periodicals as well as in chatrooms or unedited personal blogs. Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way. If you search for miniscule on Dictionary.com, you will find it defined as minuscule. Here are a few sentences that contain the word minuscule. "Cannot" vs. "Can Not": What's The Difference? Here Are Our Top English Tips, The Best Articles To Improve Your English Language Usage, The Most Common English Language Questions, See more from Spelling Differences Between Languages. When a reader kindly pointed out that I’d misspelled minuscule in a post, my first reaction was puzzlement. According to this source, it’s an alternative spelling.