Minorities
minor (miner), a. (L., acomparative 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. 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.
minor (?), 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.
f 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.
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