Minorite (minor it)

and a. [ Some minorite among the clergy. Bp . Hacket , Abp. Williams, ii. 202. ( Davies .) II. a . Belonging to the Francis cans. Few movements within the bosom of the Church were more pregnant with auspicious augury for its reformation than the rise of the Minorite orders. J. Owen, Evenings with Skeptics, II. 381. minority (mior mi-nor'i-ti), n.; pl. minorities (-tiz). [F. minor ité = Pr. men or etat = Sp. mi noridad =Pg. minoridade = It. minor ità, From this narrow time of gestation [may] ensue a minority or smallne in the exclusion. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., iii. 6. 2. The minor part in number; the smaller of two aggregates into which a whole is divided numerically; a numberle than half: opposed to majority. That minority of the Scottish nation by the aid of which the government had hitherto held the majority down. Macaulay , Hist. Eng., vi. Remember, sir, that everything great and excellent is in minorities . Emerson, Addre to Ko uth. Specifically-3. The smaller of two related aggregates of persons; the minor division of any whole number of persons: as, the rights of the minority; government by minorities. To give the minority a negative upon the majority, which is always the case where more than a majority is requisite to a decision, is to subject the sense of the greater number to that of the le er. A. Hamilton , The Federalist, No. 22. 4. The state of being a minor or not come of age, and therefore legally incapacitated for the performance of certain acts; the period or interval before one is of full age, generally the period from birth until twenty-one years of age (see age , 3); in Scots law , the interval between pupilarity and majority. See minor , n ., 1. What mean all those hard restraints and shackles put upon us in our minority. South , Works, IV. v. King Edmund dying, his brother Edred in the Minority of his Nephews was crowned at Kingston upon Thames. Baker, Chronicles, p. 11. Minority representation. See proportional representation, under representation. minorship (mi'nor-ship), n. [