minnow
Meanings
- Any of certain small fish.
- The common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), a small freshwater fish of the carp family Cyprinidae which has a green back with black elongated blotches, commonly swimming in large shoals.
- Chiefly with a qualifying word: That fish or any of a number of other (small) fish from the family Cyprinidae.
- Any of those fish or other small (usually freshwater) fish from other families.
- Synonym of galaxiid (“any member of the family Galaxiidae of mostly small freshwater fish of the Southern Hemisphere”); specifically, the common galaxias, inanga, or jollytail (Galaxias maculatus).
- Synonym of stickleback (family Gasterosteidae).
- A person or thing of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.
- a team that is considered less skilled and not expected to win many, if any, of its matches.
- An artificial bait in the form of a small fish.
- Very small; tiny.
- To fish for minnows (noun sense 1 and subsenses).
- To fish, especially for trout, using minnows as bait.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The noun is derived from Late Middle English menew, menowe (“small fish; (specifically) common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus); or stickleback (possibly the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus)”), from Old English *mynwe, an oblique form of *mynu, a variant of myne (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *muniwu (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small”). Possibly influenced by Anglo-Norman menu (“small”) and Old French menu (“small”), and English minim (“anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like”). The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. Cognates * Middle Low German mone, möne (Dutch meun, West Frisian meun) * Old High German muniwa, munuwa, munewa (modern German Münne (“minnow”)) * Latin mēna (“small sea-fish”)