minnow

Meaning

Noun

1. Any small fish.
2. Any small fish.
3. Any small fish.
4. Any small fish.
5. A person or thing of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.
6. An artificial bait in the form of a small fish.

Adj

Very small; tiny.

Verb

1. To fish for minnows (noun sense 1 and subsenses).
2. To fish, especially for trout, using minnows as bait.

Synonyms

kid

🧒

Phoxinus phoxinus

smelt

pink

pup

spoon

🥄

tiddler

toddler

troll

🧌

shinner

fish

🐟

spoon-bait

Eurasian minnow

Korean sharpbelly

buyr sawbelly

Dangila leptocheila

anchovy

common sawbelly

common minnow

gudgeon

Hyphenated as

min‧now

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmɪnəʊ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: menew

Inherited from Old English: *mynwe

Cognate with Anglo-Norman: menu

Cognate with Old French: menu

Cognate with English: minim

Cognate with Middle Low German: mone

Cognate with Dutch: meun

Cognate with Western Frisian: meun

Cognate with Old High German: muniwa

Cognate with German: Münne

Cognate with Latin: mēna

In summary

The noun is derived from Late Middle English menew, menowe (“small fish; (specifically) common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus); or stickleback (possibly the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus)”), from Old English *mynwe, an oblique form of *mynu, a variant of myne (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *muniwu (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small”). Possibly influenced by Anglo-Norman menu (“small”) and Old French menu (“small”), and English minim (“anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like”).
The adjective and verb are derived from the noun.
cognates
* Middle Low German mone, möne (Dutch meun, West Frisian meun)
* Old High German muniwa, munuwa, munewa (modern German Münne (“minnow”))
* Latin mēna (“small sea-fish”)