Minute vs Niggardly - What's the difference?
minute | niggardly | Related terms |
A unit of time equal to sixty seconds (one-sixtieth of an hour).
A short but unspecified time period.
A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a degree.
(in the plural, minutes) A (usually formal) written record of a meeting.
A minute of use of a telephone or other network, especially a cell phone network.
A point in time; a moment.
* Dryden
A nautical or a geographic mile.
An old coin, a half farthing.
(obsolete) A very small part of anything, or anything very small; a jot; a whit.
* Jeremy Taylor
(architecture) A fixed part of a module.
Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.
* Charles Dickens
* 1995, Edmund Dell, The Schuman Plan and the British Abdication of Leadership in Europe [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=us6DpQrcaVEC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&sig=8WYGZFKFxIhE4WPCpVkzDvHpO1A]
* 1996, Peter Hinchliffe, The Other Battle [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=vxBK8kHLTyIC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&sig=lXg1Kvn_f1KsmB4gdOv51h5nu8I]
* 2003, David Roberts, Four Against the Arctic [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=yPsgKV7zo_kC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&sig=WNGXG6bM-ja8NDueqgtdNrCkslM]
To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.
* Bancroft
Very small.
Very careful and exact, giving small details.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=[http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/fenella-saunders Fenella Saunders], magazine=(American Scientist)
, title=[http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2013/4/tiny-lenses-see-the-big-picture Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture]
, passage=The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.}}
Withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.
* Bishop Hall
* 1919 ,
* 1958 , , The Affluent Society (1998 edition), ISBN 9780395925003,
In a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily.
*, New York 2001, p.105:
Minute is a related term of niggardly.
As a verb minute
is .As an adjective niggardly is
withholding for the sake of meanness; stingy, miserly.As an adverb niggardly is
in a parsimonious way; sparingly, stingily.minute
English
(wikipedia minute)Etymology 1
From (etyl) minute, fromNoun
(en noun)- You have twenty minutes to complete the test.
- Wait a minute , I’m not ready yet!
- We need to be sure these maps are accurate to within one minute of arc.
- Let’s look at the minutes of last week’s meeting.
- If you buy this phone, you’ll get 100 free minutes .
- I go this minute to attend the king.
- minutes and circumstances of his passion
Derived terms
* minute bell * minute book * minute glass * minute gunSynonyms
* instant, jiffy, mo, moment, sec, second, tic * (unit of angular measure) minute of arcVerb
(minut)- I’ll minute this evening’s meeting.
- I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting , memoranduming, and dispatch-boxing, on this mighty subject.
- On 17 November 1949 Jay minuted Cripps, arguing that trade liberalization on inessentials was socially regressive.
- The Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Sir Richard Peirse, was sceptical of its findings, minuting, ‘I don’t think at this rate we could have hoped to produce the damage which is known to have been achieved.’
- Mr. Klingstadt, chief Auditor of the Admiralty of that city, sent for and examined them very particularly concerning the events which had befallen them; minuting down their answers in writing, with an intention of publishing himself an account of their extraordinary adventures.
- The Empress of Russia, with her own hand, minuted an edict for universal tolerance.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Adjective
(er)Synonyms
* (small) * infinitesimal, insignificant, minuscule, tiny, trace * See also * (exact) * exact, exacting, excruciating, precise, scrupulous * See alsoAntonyms
* big, enormous, colossal, huge, significant, tremendous, vastniggardly
English
(Controversies about the word "niggardly")Adjective
(en adjective)- Where the owner of the house will be bountiful, it is not for the steward to be niggardly .
- They were not niggardly , these tramps, and he who had money did not hesitate to share it among the rest.
p. 186:
- This manifests itself in an implacable tendency to provide an opulent supply of some things and a niggardly yield of others.
Synonyms
* miserly, stingy. * See alsoAdverb
(en adverb)- because many families are compelled to live niggardly , exhaust and undone by great dowers, none shall be given at all, or very little […].
Usage notes
* This term may cause offence as it is easily misinterpreted to be an adverbial form of the racial epithet (nigger).Racist Language, Real and Imagined, Steven Pinker. February 2, 1999. The New York Times (editorial). The two words are etymologically unrelated.