minium

English

Etymology

From Latin minium.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnɪəm/

Noun

minium (usually uncountable, plural miniums)

1. (now historical) Cinnabar, especially when used as a pigment; vermilion. [from 14th c.]
2. Red lead. [from 17th c.]
   • 1861, Robert H. Lamborn, A rudimentary treatise on the Metallurgy of Silver and Lead, page 43:

     The compounds formed by the combination of the peroxide of lead with the protoxide have received the general name of miniums, and are known in commerce as red lead.

   • 2007, Giambattista Basile, translated by Nancy L. Canepa, Tale of Tales, Penguin, page 29:

     [H]e was so overcome by suffering that his face, which had once been of oriental minium, now became like orpiment, and the hams of his lips turned into rancid lard.

Translations

red lead

• Armenian: սուսր (hy) (susr)

  Old Armenian: նօթ (nōtʻ)

• Azerbaijani: sülügən
• Bulgarian: миниум (minium)
• Catalan: mini (ca)
• Czech: suřík
• Danish: mønje
• Finnish: mönjä (fi)
• French: minium (fr) m
• German: Minium
• Greek: ερυθρομόλυβδος m (erythromólyvdos), μίνιο (el) n (mínio)

  Ancient: μίνιον n (mínion)

• Hindi: सीस सिंदूर (sīs sindūr)
• Latin: minium n
• Persian: سرنج (fa) (soranj)
• Romanian: miniu (ro) n
• Russian: су́рик (ru) (súrik)
• Spanish: tetróxido de plomo
• Swedish: mönja (sv) c
• Tagalog: minyo

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmiːnɪjum]

Noun

minium n

1. red lead, minium (a bright red, poisonous oxide of lead, Pb₃O₄, used as a pigment and in glass and ceramics)

   Synonym: suřík

Declension

Declension of minium (semisoft neuter foreign)

	singular	plural
nominative	minium	minia
genitive	minia	minií
dative	miniu	miniím
accusative	minium	minia
vocative	minium	minia
locative	miniu	miniích
instrumental	miniem	minii

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin minium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.njɔm/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

minium m (uncountable)

1. red lead

Further reading

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

Latin

Alternative forms

• min

Etymology

Iberian. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ni.um/, [ˈmɪniʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.ni.um/, [ˈmiːnium]

Noun

minium n (genitive miniī or minī); second declension

1. native cinnabar
2. red lead, minium

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	minium	minia
Genitive	miniī minī1	miniōrum
Dative	miniō	miniīs
Accusative	minium	minia
Ablative	miniō	miniīs
Vocative	minium	minia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• miniō
• minius

Descendants

• English: minium, miniature
• Ancient Greek: μίνιον (mínion)
• Italian: minio
• → Middle Dutch: minie
  • Dutch: menie
• Polish: minia
• Portuguese: Minho, mínio
• Spanish: Miño

References

• “minium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “minium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• minium in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• minium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.