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.
&fist; 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.
Mi"nor (mī"n&etilde;r), 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. miny`qein, 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♯, 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: --
See Major. -- Minor term of a syllogism (Logic), the subject of the conclusion.
Hear it pronounced