英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

mini-[mini- 词源字典]: word-forming element meaning "miniature, minor," abstracted from miniature, with sense perhaps influenced by minimum.[mini- etymology, mini- origin, 英语词源]
mini-series: also miniseries "television series of short duration, on a single theme," 1971, from mini- + series.
miniature (n.): 1580s, "a reduced image," from Italian miniatura "manuscript illumination or small picture," from past participle of miniare "to illuminate a manuscript," from Latin miniare "to paint red," from minium "red lead," used in ancient times to make red ink, a word said to be of Iberian origin. Sense development is because pictures in medieval manuscripts were small, but no doubt there was influence as well from the similar-sounding Latin words that express smallness: minor, minimus, minutus, etc.
miniature (adj.): "small," 1714, from minature (n.). Of dog breeds, from 1889. Of golf, from 1893.
miniaturist (n.): "maker of miniatures," 1800, from miniature (n.) + -ist.
miniaturization (n.): 1947, from miniaturize + -ation. Minification in this sense attested from 1904, on analogy of magnification.
miniaturize (v.): 1946, from miniature (adj.) + -ize. Minify in same sense is from 1670s, on analogy of magnify. Related: Miniaturized; miniaturizing.
minie ball (n.): kind of rifle bullet, 1853, named for its inventor, French army officer Claude-Étienne Minié (1814-1879), who designed it 1847-8.
minim (n.): mid-15c., in music, from Latin minimus "smallest, least; minute, trifling, insignificant;" of time, "least, shortest, very short;" of age, "youngest;" as a noun, "least price, lowest price" (see minimum). Calligraphy sense is from c. 1600.
minimal (adj.): "smallest, least," 1660s, from Latin minimus (see minim) + -al (1).
minimalise (v.): chiefly British English spelling of minimalize. For suffix, see -ize. Related: Minimalised; minimalising.
minimalist (n.): 1907; see minimal + -ist. Originally an Englishing of Menshevik (q.v.); in sense of "practitioner of minimal art" it is first recorded 1967; the term minimal art is from 1965. As an adjective from 1917 in the Russian political sense; 1969 in reference to art. Related: Minimalistic; Minimalism.
minimalize (v.): 1914, see minimal + -ize. Related: Minimalized; minimalizing.
minimally (adv.): 1894, from minimal + -ly (2).
minimise (v.): chiefly British English spelling of minimize. For suffix, see -ize. Related: Minimised; minimising.
minimization (n.): 1802, from minimize + -ation.
minimize (v.): 1802, first recorded in Bentham; see minimum + -ize.
minimum (n.): 1660s, "smallest portion into which matter is divisible," from Latin minimum "smallest" (thing), neuter of minimus "smallest, least," superlative of minor "smaller" (see minor). Meaning "least amount attainable" is from 1670s.
minimum (adj.): 1810, from minimum (n.).
minimus (n.): 1580s, from Latin minimus (plural minimi); see minim.