mincer

See also: Mincer

English

Etymology

From mince +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnsɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

mincer (plural mincers)

1. A kitchen utensil used for mincing meat, etc.
2. Someone who minces.
3. (British, slang, derogatory) A homosexual male.

Derived terms

• word-mincer

 

Translations

a kitchen utensil used for mincing meat — see meatgrinder

References

• (homosexual male): Tony Thorne (2014) “mincer”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury

Anagrams

• crimen

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French mincier, of disputed origin. Often purported to be from Vulgar Latin *minūtiāre, a verb based on Latin minūtus, though the phonetic development poses several problems. The proper outcome of Vulgar Latin *minūtiāre is rather the Old French menusier, menuiser (“to reduce to small pieces”), modern French menuiser. Old French mincier, however, more likely derives from Frankish *minnistō (“smaller, finer”) or Frankish *minnisōn (“to make small, make smaller”), thus relating it to Old English ġeminsian (“to reduce, make smaller, lessen”), whence English mince.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̃.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

mincer

1. chop into fine pieces

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of mincer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mincer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	minçant /mɛ̃.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		mincé /mɛ̃.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mince /mɛ̃s/	minces /mɛ̃s/	mince /mɛ̃s/	minçons /mɛ̃.sɔ̃/	mincez /mɛ̃.se/	mincent /mɛ̃s/
	imperfect	minçais /mɛ̃.sɛ/	minçais /mɛ̃.sɛ/	minçait /mɛ̃.sɛ/	mincions /mɛ̃.sjɔ̃/	minciez /mɛ̃.sje/	minçaient /mɛ̃.sɛ/
	past historic2	minçai /mɛ̃.se/	minças /mɛ̃.sa/	minça /mɛ̃.sa/	minçâmes /mɛ̃.sam/	minçâtes /mɛ̃.sat/	mincèrent /mɛ̃.sɛʁ/
	future	mincerai /mɛ̃.sʁe/	minceras /mɛ̃.sʁa/	mincera /mɛ̃.sʁa/	mincerons /mɛ̃.sʁɔ̃/	mincerez /mɛ̃.sʁe/	minceront /mɛ̃.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mincerais /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/	mincerais /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/	mincerait /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/	mincerions /mɛ̃.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	minceriez /mɛ̃.sə.ʁje/	minceraient /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	mince /mɛ̃s/	minces /mɛ̃s/	mince /mɛ̃s/	mincions /mɛ̃.sjɔ̃/	minciez /mɛ̃.sje/	mincent /mɛ̃s/
	imperfect2	minçasse /mɛ̃.sas/	minçasses /mɛ̃.sas/	minçât /mɛ̃.sa/	minçassions /mɛ̃.sa.sjɔ̃/	minçassiez /mɛ̃.sa.sje/	minçassent /mɛ̃.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	mince /mɛ̃s/	—	minçons /mɛ̃.sɔ̃/	mincez /mɛ̃.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• mince
• émincer

Related terms

• menuiser

Further reading

• “mincer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.