minnow

minnow

English

Alternative forms

• minnie, minny
• minow, menow, menoe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English menow, from Old English *mynwe, oblique form of *mynu, unattested variant of myne (“minnow, small fish”), from Proto-Germanic *muniwō (“minnow”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small”). Cognate with Middle Low German mone, möne (West Frisian meun, Dutch meun), Old High German muniwa, munuwa, munewa (German Münne (“minnow”)).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnəʊ/

  Rhymes: -ɪnəʊ

Noun

minnow (plural minnows)

1. a small freshwater fish of the carp family
2. any small fish
3. a relatively small and insignificant person or organization
   • 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0 - 1 Crawley Town”, in BBC‎:

     Having spent more than £500,000 on players last summer, Crawley can hardly be classed as minnows but they have still punched way above their weight and this kind of performance means no-one will relish pulling them out of the hat in Sunday's draw.

Translations

a small freshwater fish

Czech: střevle (cs) f Dutch: witvis (nl) Finnish: mutu (fi) French: vairon (fr) German: Elritze f, Bitterfisch m, Maipiere, Pfrille f Greek: Ancient Greek: φοξῖνος m (phoxînos) Hungarian: cselle Irish: bodairlín m, pincín m Manx: mynnag m Mi'kmaq: so'qomu'j anim

Norwegian: Bokmål: ørekyte (no) m (Phoxinus phoxinus) Polish: płotka (pl) f Portuguese: vairão m Russian: голья́н (ru) m (golʹján) Scots: bandy, baanie Scottish Gaelic: doirbeag f Spanish: carpa (es) f, carpita f Swedish: elritsa (sv) c, kvidd c Thai: ซิว (siu) Welsh: sildyn (cy) m, pilcodyn m, crothell y dom f, sil y dom f, sili-don m, brithyll y dom m

any small fish

Dutch: ondermaatse vis Finnish: sintti (fi) French: fretin (fr) Maori: pokotehe Polish: płotka (pl) f

Portuguese: peixinho (pt) m Scottish Gaelic: sgiolag f Spanish: pececillo m Thai: ซิว (siu)

Verb

minnow (third-person singular simple present minnows, present participle minnowing, simple past and past participle minnowed)

1. (fishing) to fish for minnows
2. (fishing) to fish (especially for trout) using a minnow as bait

Derived terms

• minnower

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: (please verify) vaironner (fr)

Turkish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• pinkeen