minstrel squire (minstrelskwir)

strel who was attached to one particular person. minstrelsy (min's trel-si), n. [ Holliche thanne with his host hizede to here tentes With merthe of alle menstracye , and made hem attese. William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1295. When every room Hath blaz'd with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy . Shak ., T. of A., ii. 2. 170. Originally... the profe ion of the joculator included all the arts attributed to the minstrels; and accordingly his performance was called his minstrelsy in the reign of Edward II., and even after he had obtained the appellation of a tregetour. Strutt , Sports and Pastimes, p. 287. 2. An a emblage or company of minstrels; a body of singers and players. So many maner minstracie at that mariage were. William of Palerne (E. E. T. 8.), 1. 5010. The bride hath paced into the hall - Red as a rose is she! Nodding their heads before her goes The merry minstrelsy. Cole ridge, Ancient Mariner, i. 3t. A collection of instruments used by min strels. 4. A For sorwe of which he brak his minstralcie , Bothe harpe and lute, and giterne and sautrie. Chaucer , Manciple's Tale, 1. 163. Lutte and rybybe, bot he gangande, And all manere of mynstralsye . Thomas of Er eldoune (Child's Ballads, I. 106). collection or body of lyrical songs and ballad poetry, such as were sung by minstrels: as, Scott's " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." The body of traditional minstrelsy which commemorated the heroic deeds performed in these wars. Pre scott, Ferd. and Isa., Int. mint1 (mint), n. [ E. money ) = Pr. Sp. moneda = Pg. moeda = It. moneta, money, Thees if me spende, or mynt for them receyve, The sonner wol they brymme ayeine and brynge Forth pigges moo. Palladius , Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 99. 2. A place where money is coined by public authority. The coining of money is now considered a prerogative of government. In early times there were many mints in England, but now the only one in that country is the Royal Mint, Tower Hill, London. The United States Mint was established by act of April 2d, 1792, and located at Philadelphia. Other mints have since been established at San Francisco, New Orleans, Carson City, and Denver (but the last two are, properly speaking, a ay offices). The United States Mint is a bureau of the Treasury Department, under the charge of an officer called the Director of the Mint. And so (vpon the matter) to set the mint on work, and to giue way to new coines of siluer, which should bee Bacon, Hist. Hen. VII., p. 215. IMG:content-0684.jpg:[graphic] Wake ye from your sleep of death, Minstrels and bards of other days! But while the minstrel proper accompanied his lord to the field and shared with him the danger and the honour of his warlike exploits, the connection between him and the humbler kind of entertainer [the jongleur], who was still the servant of the multitude rather than of a particular lord, cannot have been wholly forgotten. A. W. Ward, Eng. Dram. Lit., I. 13. Hence-2. Any poet or musician. [Poetical.] -3. Originally, one of a cla of singers of negro melodies and delineators of life on the Southern plantations which originated in the United States about 1830: called negro min strels, although they are usually white men whose faces and hands are blackened with burnt cork. The characteristic feature of such a troupe or band is the middle-man or interlocutor, who leads the talk and gives the cues, and the two end-men, who usually perform on the tambourine and the bones, and between whom the indispensable conundrums and jokes are ex In one higher roo me of this Mint ... I saw four teene marvailous strong chests,... in which is kept nothing but money. Coryat , Crudities, I. 242. 3. Figuratively, a source of fabrication or invention. And haue a mint in their pragmatic all heads of such supersubtle inuentions. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 393. The busy mint Of our laborious thoughts is ever going, And coining new desires. Quarles , Emblems, ii. 2. 4. A quantity such as a mint turns out; a great supply or store: as, a mint of money. And so ta elled and so ruffled with a mint of bravery. R. D. Black more, Lorna Doone, p. 129. 5. [ cap.] A place of privilege or asylum in South wark, London, near the Queen's Prison, where persons sheltered themselves from justice, under the pretext that this place was an ancient palace of the crown. ( Rapalje and Lawrence.) The privilege is now abolished. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary IMG:content-0686.png:[blocks in formation] Brit., XIII. 602. mint-julep (mint'jöʻlep), n. See julep . They were great roysters, much given to revel on hoe- cake and bacon, mint - julep and apple-toddy. Irving , Knickerbocker, p. 247. lar profe ions (as lawyers, sea-men, mint - men , and the Let such as are to in for me councils out of their particu- like) be first heard before committees. Bacon , Of Counsel (ed. 1887). mint-mark (mint' märk), n . A private mark put upon coins by the mint authorities for pur- poses of identification. Sometimes this mark ind i- cates the place of mintage, as "S" on certain sovereigns of Queen Victoria, denoting that the pieces were coined at Sydney in Australia; sometimes it relates to the mint- master or other official. mint-master (mint'måster), n. [= D. munt- meester = MHG. G. münzmeister = Sw. mynt- mästare = Dan. myntmester ; as mint1 + mas- layed with about a twelfth part of copper. 'Boyle. 2. One who invents or fabricates. That the lewes were forward Mint - Masters in this new- coyned Religion of Mahomet. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 263. Setting aside the odde coinage of your phrase, which no mint maister of language would allow for sterling. Milton , On Def. of Humb. Remonst. The munte is in this moone ysowe. In cookery , mint Palladius , Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 192. chopped and mixed with vinegar and sugar, Then rubb'd it o'er with newly gather'd mint , A wholesome herb, that breath'd a grateful scent. IMG:content-0687.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0688.png:[blocks in formation] minuscula (mi-nus kū-là), n.; pl. minuscula (-lē). [NL.: see minuscule .] Same as minuscule . minuscule (mi-nus'kul), a . and n . [F. minus- cule = Sp. minúscul a = Pg. It. minusculo , litter a ), fem. of L. minusculus , rather small; dim. of minor , minus , le : see minor, minus. Cf. majuscule.] I. a. Small; of reduced form, as a letter; of or pertaining to writing in minuscule. Minuscule letters are cursive forms of the earlier uncials. Isaac Taylor , The Alphabet, I. 71. The period of the uncials runs from the date of the ear- liest specimens on papyrus to the 9th century, that of the minuscule from the 9th century to the invention of print- ing. Encyc . Brit ., XVIII. 145. minutary (min'i-tā-ri), a. [ used especially as a sauce for roast lamb. mint-stick (mint's tik), n. Sticks of candy fla-- ary .] Consisting of minutes. [Rare.] vored with peppermint. [Local, U. S.] The soldiers hunger for dates, figs, mint -stick, the sutler keeps for sale. This their clock gathering up the least crumb of time, that presenting the minutary fractions thereof. Fuller , Worthies, Berks hire. New York Tribune, June 13, 1862. ( Bartlett .) mint-tree (mint'trē), n . A plant of the Aus- tralian genus Prostanthera, especially P. las i- anthos. mint-warden (mint'war"dn), n. See warden of the mint, under mint . mint-whilet, n. Same as minute - while . minuend (min'ū-end), n. [ minuend us , to be diminished, gerundive of minuere , le en: see minute1 .] In arith ., the number from which another number is to be deducted in the pro- ce of subtraction. minuet (min'u-et), n. [= Sp. minuete, minué = Pg. minuete = It. minuet to , menuet , a dance so called from the small steps taken in it, menuet , smallish, little, pretty, thin (Cotgrave), dim. of menu , small, minutus , small: see min- utel.] 1. A slow and graceful dance, invented, probably in Poitou, France, about the middle of the seventeenth century. Throughout the eighteenth century it was the most popular of the more stately and ceremonious dances.-2. Music for such a dance, or in its rhythm, which is triple and slow. Minuets are frequently found in the old suite, and also in the later sonata and symphony. They properly consist of two contrasted sections of six- teen measures each, the second of which is generally called a trio , because originally written for but three instru- ments; but this regular form is often considerably modi- fied. Beethoven was the first to replace the minuet in the sonata and the symphony by the scherzo , which re- sembled the minuet somewhat in rhythm, but was more sprightly and unrestricted in form and spirit. minumt, n. An obsolete form of minim. grave . minus (minus), a. [L. minus, neut. of minor , le : see minor .] 1. Le (by a certain amount): followed by a noun as an apparent object (a preposition, by , to be supplied): as, the net amount is so much minus the waste or tare; 25 minus 9 is 16. In algebra and arithmetic this sense is indicated by the sign, called the minus sign or sign of subtraction: as, ab = 2, which is read " a minus b equals z "; 25 - 9 = 16. 2. Le than nothing; belonging to the in- verse or negative side, as of an account; lying in the direction from the origin of measurement opposite to ordinary quantities; below zero, or below the lowest point of positive or upward reckoning: as, a minus amount or sum (that is, an amount or sum representing lo or debt); a minus quantity in an equation (that is, one having the minus sign before it); the tempera- But whanne a pore wide we was come, sche cast two mynutis , that is, a ferthing. Wyclif , Mark xii. 42. Let me hear from thee every minute of news. B. Jonson, Staple of News, i. 2. minute 3781 Mirabilis is to seyn, minutes of an howre. Chaucer, Astrolabe. For the lache e Of halfe a minute of an houre, Fro first he began laboure, He loste all that he had do. Gower, Conf. Amant., iv. Nor all the pleasures there Her mind could ever move one minute's stay to make. Drayton, Polyolbion, vi. 33. (b) In geom., the sixtieth part of a degree of a circle. Division of units by sixtieths is the characteristic of the Babylonian system. Ptolemy, following the Babylonian astronomers, divides the diameter of the circle into 120 tmemáta or degrees, and these into sixty parts and these again into sixty parts. These subdivisions were translated into Latin as partes minutæ primæ and partes minutæ secundæ, whence our minutes (primes) and seconds. In modern astronomical works minutes of time are denoted by the initial letter m, and minutes of a degree or of angular space by an acute accent ('). See degree, 8. Aftre goynge be See and be Londe toward this Contree of that I have spoke, and to other Yles and Londes bezonde that Contree, I have founden the Sterre Antartyk of 33 Degrees of heghte, and mo mynutes. summoned. An account is come of the Boston i ans having voted an army of sixteen you sand men, who are to be called min ute-men, as they are to be ready at a minute's warning. Walpole , Letters (1775), IV. 2. (Davies.) It was the drums of Naseby and Dunbar that gathered the minute - men on Lexington Common. Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 238. 1. The state or