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minuto

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minuto1 small, minute

Pronunciation

Forms

minuto (feminine minuta, masculine plural minuti, feminine plural minute, superlative minutissimo)[1] Old Italian forms include menuto and northern menudo and menù.[2]

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Latin minūtus (“small, tiny”), properly the past participle of minuō (“to make smaller, diminish”),[3][4][5][1] which comes from minus (“less”), the neuter of minor (“smaller”).[4] DELI notes its use in the Latin phrase ⟨populus minutus⟩, the common people.[3] The same adjective lives in French menu, Occitan menut, Catalan menut, Spanish menudo, Portuguese miúdo, Sardinian menudu and Romanian mărunt.[4][6] The Italian menu, from French, is a doublet.[1]

Latin derivatives gave other Italian words: minūtia (“small particle”) became the learned minuzia and, with a northern sound pattern, minugia “gut strings”, and the verb Vulgar Latin *minutiō lies behind sminuzzare.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Patecchio of Cremona, in the 13th century, for something small in size.[2] DELI's earliest date is 1273, in a Florentine text, for “of little importance”;[3][4] “of low condition” follows in Brunetto Latini before 1294 and “careful in every detail” in Dante (1293–1294).[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The plain physical sense “small” is first dated by DELI to Boccaccio (1348–1353), and “slight, thin” of a person to Giovanni Morelli before 1444.[3] In Florence the popolo minuto were the members of the lesser guilds.[7][8][9] Al minuto “retail” referred, as Pompeo Neri explained before 1776, to small daily trade.[3] A minuto was also a small coin of Genoa, Verona and Sardinia from the 14th century.[10][5]

Minuta “first draft” (14th century) is short for lettera minuta, from the small handwriting used for such letters.[3] Minuteria “small ornamental objects” is recorded as early as 1299–1300, and minuzioso “meticulous” before 1808 in Cesarotti.[3]

Timeline

  • 1273 – Minuto “of little importance” appears in a Florentine text.[3][4]
  • 1293–1294 – Dante uses minuto “detailed”.[3]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for people of low condition.[3]
  • 1299–1300 – Minuteria is recorded.[3]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses minuto “small”.[3]
  • Before 1444 – Giovanni Morelli uses it for a slight person.[3]
  • 1891 – The noun minuto “trifle” is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Very small, tiny; made of tiny parts: Aveva una scrittura minuta e ordinata.[5][11][9]
  2. Of a person, slight, delicate in build or features: È una ragazza minuta ma fortissima.[5][11]
  3. (figurative) Of little importance, petty: spese minute.[5][11][7]
  4. (figurative, literary) Of the lower classes: popolo minuto.[5][9]
  5. (figurative) Detailed, meticulous: un’analisi minuta dei dati.[5][11]

Noun

  1. In al minuto, retail, in small quantities: vendita al minuto.[11][7][12]

Word family

  • minuta
  • minutaglia
  • minutamente
  • minutante
  • minuteria
  • minutezza
  • minuzia
  • minuzioso
  • minuziosità
  • minuzzolo
  • minugia
  • sminuzzare

minuto2 minute of time

Pronunciation

Forms

minuto m (plural minuti)[1]

Etymology

The unit of time is borrowed from Late Latin minūtum (“small thing, particle”), the neuter of the Latin adjective used as a noun.[3][4][9] Nocentini explains French minute, the source of minute and German Minute, as an ellipsis of Medieval Latin pars minuta (“smallest part”): ⟨pars minuta prima⟩ was the sixtieth part of the hour and ⟨pars minuta secunda⟩ the sixtieth part of that, whence the Italian ⟨minuto primo⟩ and secondo.[4] DEI and GRADIT compare the French word, recorded from the 13th century.[10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record of the noun is in Restoro d'Arezzo in 1282.[2] DELI's first record is the sixtieth part of a degree of a circle, in Zucchero Bencivenni and Boccaccio in the 14th century; the minute of time is dated 1561, in Alessandro Citolini.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “moment, instant” is recorded before 1735 in Niccolò Forteguerri.[3] Minuto secondo for the sixtieth part of a minute is from the 17th century.[10] GRADIT also records old units of area and length called minuto in the Papal States.[5] German borrowed Minuto in 1806.[13]

Timeline

  • 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo has the first record of the noun.[2]
  • 14th century – Zucchero Bencivenni and Boccaccio use minuto for a sixtieth of a degree.[3]
  • 1561 – Alessandro Citolini uses minuto for a unit of time.[3][5]
  • 17th century – Minuto secondo is recorded.[10]
  • Before 1735 – Forteguerri uses minuto “moment”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A minute, the sixtieth part of an hour, sixty seconds: L’autobus passa ogni venti minuti.[5][11][9]
  2. A very short time, a moment: Aspettami un minuto, arrivo subito.[5][11][9]
  3. (geometry) The sixtieth part of a degree of angle.[3][12][8]
  4. (historical) Old units of area and of length.[5]

Word family

  • minutaggio
  • minuzzo
  • minore
  • diminuire
  • Latin minutus

Usage notes

Phrases with the noun include avere i minuti contati “to be in a great hurry”, spaccare il minuto “to be perfectly punctual” and minuto di recupero “minute of stoppage time”.[5][9][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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 g h i 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 l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2467
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it