Minor means smaller, less important, or not serious, as in a minor problem. As a noun, it also refers to someone who is legally under the age of adulthood.
From Latin ‘minor,’ meaning ‘smaller’ or ‘less,’ the comparative form of ‘parvus’ (small). It has kept the sense of ‘lesser’ in English.
The same root that gives us ‘minor’ also gives us ‘minus’—they both point to ‘less.’ Calling someone a ‘minor’ doesn’t mean they matter less; it just marks that the law treats them as not yet fully responsible.
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