minimo

Forms

minimo (feminine minima, masculine plural minimi, feminine plural minime)^[1] Older and literary variants include menimo and minomo.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mĭnĭmus (“smallest, least”), a learned word.^[3][4][5][6] DELI points out that the learned form won out over the popular menomo, the inherited outcome of the same Latin word, which survives mainly in literary use.^[3][7][1] The same learned adjective is French minime, recorded from the 14th century, and Spanish mínimo.^[4][6]

In Latin minimus served as the superlative of parvus (“small”), but it is built on the comparative minor (“smaller, less”), beside the adverb minus (“less”), the source of Italian meno.^[4][2][8] De Vaan traces these to a Proto-Italic *minōs (“less”) and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root *meyh₁- (“to lessen”), seen also in Ancient Greek μείων (meíōn, “smaller”) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (mins, “less”).^[8] Devoto similarly derives the stem from a root meaning “small”.^[9]

The popular word gave many dialect words for small things: Milanese marmel “little finger”, and, according to Meyer-Lübke and Körting, Italian marmocchio “small child” and marmaglia “rabble”.^[7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dante already has the plural menimi in the Vita nuova (1293–1294), in the phrase li menimi polsi, “the faintest pulses”.^[3] The form minimo, as the superlative of piccolo, is first dated by DELI to Bernardino da Siena in 1427, who preached that no star is so small that it is not larger than the whole earth.^[3][2] GRADIT, Devoto–Oli and Nocentini date the word to the 14th century.^[5][11][4]

Semantic evolution

Bono Giamboni (before 1292) uses the word for a very humble person, a sense that remains rare and literary.^[3][12] As a noun, il minimo “the least part, the lowest degree” is found in Dante, and Galileo uses it for the smallest possible quantity; he also stresses that minimo and immenso are relative, not absolute, terms.^[3][2] Because the Latin superlative was no longer felt as one, writers formed più minimo and minimissimo: Galileo has una minimissima particella.^[12][2]

The feminine minima became a musical note, half a semibreve (1561), and, with temperatura understood, the lowest temperature of a period.^[3][4] Technical senses followed in the 20th century: the idling speed of an engine (1957), the minimum of a mathematical function, and the lowest point of a scale of marks.^[3][5] The Order of Minims founded by Francis of Paola in 1435 gave minimo the sense “Minim friar”.^[13][12]

Timeline

• 1293–1294 – Dante writes li menimi polsi in the Vita nuova.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the noun minimo “the least degree”.^[3]
• 1427 – Bernardino da Siena uses minimo as the superlative of piccolo.^[3]
• 1561 – Minima is recorded as a musical note.^[3]
• Before 1642 – Galileo uses minimo for “the smallest” and for the smallest possible quantity.^[3]
• 1939 – Minimizzare appears, modelled on French minimiser.^[3][4]
• 1957 – Minimo is recorded for the idling speed of an engine.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Superlative of piccolo: very small, minimal: Tra i due prezzi c'è una differenza minima.^[5][11][13]
2. The least, the slightest, especially with abstract nouns: Non ho il minimo dubbio. (set phrase: non avere la minima idea, to have no idea at all).^[5][11][12]
3. Hardly noticeable; of trifling importance: Si spaventa al minimo rumore.^[5][14]
4. The lowest in a scale of values: Il voto minimo per passare è diciotto.^[5][13]
5. (literary, rare) Most humble, lowliest, of a person.^[12][14]
6. (religion) Belonging to the order of Minims founded by Francis of Paola: frati minimi.^[13][15][14]

Noun

1. The smallest part, amount or degree; a minimum: È il minimo che possiamo fare per lui.^[5][15][13]
2. (mathematics) The lowest value of a function in its domain.^[15][5]
3. (motoring) The idling speed of an engine, below which it stalls: Con il freddo il motore fatica a tenere il minimo.^[5][15][1]

Word family

• minima
• minimizzare
• minimale
• minimalista
• minimalismo
• minimamente
• minimassimo
• minimizzazione

Related words

• meno
• mini-
• minimare
• minimax
• menomo
• minore
• minuto
• Latin minimus

Usage notes

Al minimo and come minimo mean “at least”, “to say the least”.^[13][5] Because minimo is already a superlative, the forms più minimo and minimissimo are found but are usually avoided.^[12] Ridurre ai minimi termini is to reduce a fraction to its lowest terms, and figuratively to reduce something or someone to a pitiful state.^[11][12][14] Minimo comune multiplo is the least common multiple.^[11][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2465
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d e Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse