Minion vs Pinion - What's the difference?
minion | pinion |
A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.
*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=Kevin Heng
, title= A sycophantic follower.
(obsolete) A loved one; one highly esteemed and favoured.
* Sylvester
* William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens , IV-III
(obsolete) An ancient form of ordnance with a calibre of about three inches.
(typography, uncountable) A size of type smaller than brevier but larger than nonpareil, roughly equivalent to 7pt.
(obsolete) Favoured, beloved; "pet".
*, vol.1, p.148:
A wing.
* , II.v
* Alexander Pope
* 1839 ,
The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body.
Any of the outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
* , III.xii
A moth of the genus Lithophane .
(obsolete) A fetter for the arm.
(lb) To cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.
* 1577 , (Barnabe Googe) (translator), (Konrad Heresbach) (author), Foure Bookes of Husbandrie , book iv (1586), page 169:
* 1641–2 , Henry Best (author), Donald Woodward (editor), The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1642: With a Glossary and Linguistic Commentary by Peter McClure , (Oxford University Press)/(British Academy) (1984), ISBN 0197260292 (10), ISBN 9780197260296 (13),
* ibidem ,
* 1665–7 , (Abraham Cowley), The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley (fifth edition, 1678), “Several Di?cour?es by way of E??ays, in Ver?e and Pro?e”, essay 9: ‘The ?hortne?s of Life and uncertainty of Riches’, closing verses, verse 3 (
* 1727 , Peter Longueville, Philip Quarll (1816), page 67:
* 1849 , Daniel Jay Browne, The American Poultry Yard (1855), page 242:
(lb) To bind the arms of any one, so as to deprive him of their use; to disable by so binding; to shackle.
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=1 * 1916 , , Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 80
#
#* , V.ii
#* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IX
# To bind fast to something, or together.
The smallest gear in a gear drive train.
* 1844 ,
In obsolete terms the difference between minion and pinion
is that minion is favoured, beloved; "pet" while pinion is a fetter for the arm.As an adjective minion
is favoured, beloved; "pet".As a verb pinion is
to cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.minion
English
(wikipedia minion)Noun
(en noun)Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?, volume=101, issue=3, page=184, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.}}
- God's disciple and his dearest minion
- Is this the Athenian minion whom the world / Voiced so regardfully?
- (Beaumont and Fletcher)
- (Burton)
Synonyms
* (loyal servant) disciple, follower, henchman, stooge, toadyAdjective
(en adjective)- These favours, with the commodities that follow minion Courtiers, corrupthis libertie, and dazle his judgement.
pinion
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) pignon, from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- Therefore do nimble-pinion' d doves draw Love, / And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
- Swift on his sooty pinions flits the gnome.
- Never seraph spread a pinion / Over fabric half so fair.
- (Johnson)
- An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither / He sends so poor a pinion of his wing
- (Ainsworth)
Verb
(en verb) :; (lb)- They that meane to fatte Pigions…some…do softly tie their Legges:…some vse onely to pinion them.
page 115:
- When they are aboute fortnights olde (for they must bee driven noe longer) yow must watch where the henne useth to sitte on nights, and come when it beginneth to bee darke and throwe somethinge over the henne as shee broodeth them, then take and clippe every of theire right wings. Then when they are aboute moneths old, yow must come after the same manner and pinnion or cutte a joynte of every of theire right winges.
page 129:
- The Swanners gette up the younge swannes about midsummer [24 June] and footemarke them for the owners, and then doe they allsoe pinnion them, cuttinge a joynte of theire right winges, and then att Michaellmasse [29 Sept.] doe they bringe them hoame, or else bringe hoame some, and leave the rest att some of the mills and wee sende for them.
page 138):
- Suppo?e, thou Fortune could to tamene?s bring, // And clip or pinion her wing; // Suppo?e thou could’?t on Fate ?o far prevail // As not to cut off thy Entail.
- The two old ducks…being pinioned , could not fly away.
- They…should have been pinioned at the first joint of the wing.
citation, passage=“[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned , and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck?; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]”}}
- Nash pinioned his arms behind while Boland seized a long cabbage stump which was lying in the gutter.
- Know, sir that I / Will not wait pinion' d at your master's court, / Nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye / Of dull Octavia.
- I was suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning me down, while others stood about surveying me.
Derived terms
* * *References
* “Pinion, v.'']” listed on page 883/2–3 of volume VII (O–P, ed. , 1908) of ''[[w:Oxford English Dictionary, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles](1st ed.)
Etymology 2
From (etyl) pignon.Noun
(en noun)- A certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions and the wizard wheels.