minutal

Latin

Etymology

Found in Late and Vulgar Latin. From minūtus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /miˈnuː.tal/, [mɪˈnuːt̪äɫ̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /miˈnu.tal/, [miˈnuːt̪äl]

Noun

minūtal n (genitive minūtālis); third declension

1. minced meat, ground meat, hamburger
   • c. 100 CE – c. 130 CE, Juvenal, Satires 14.129:

     Servōrum ventrēs modiō castīgat inīquō
     ipse quoque ēsuriēns, neque enim omnia sustinet umquam
     mūcida caeruleī pānis cōnsūmere frūsta,
     hesternum solitus mediō servāre minūtal
     Septembrī nec nōn differre in tempora cēnae
     alterius conchem aestīvam cum parte lacertī
     signātam vel dīmidiō putrīque silūrō
     fīlaque sectīvī numerāta inclūdere porrī.

     • 1881 translation by Lewis Evans

       While he is famishing himself, he pinches his servants' stomachs with the scantiest allowance, for he never endures to consume the whole of the blue fragments of mouldy bread, but saves, even in the middle of September, the mince of yesterday; and puts by till to-morrow's dinner the summer bean, with a piece of stockfish and half a stinking shad: and, after he has counted them, locks up the shreds of chopped leek.

2. (chiefly in the plural) trifles (petty things)

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	minūtal	minūtālia
genitive	minūtālis	minūtālium
dative	minūtālī	minūtālibus
accusative	minūtal	minūtālia
ablative	minūtālī	minūtālibus
vocative	minūtal	minūtālia

Descendants

• Catalan: menudall, menudalla
• Italian: minutaglia
• Logudorese Sardinian: minudaza
• Occitan: menudalha
• Romanian: măruntaie n pl
• Venetan: minudaja, menuaja, menuagia

References

• “minutal”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “minutal”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• minutal in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.