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minikin

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minikin¹

Where it comes from

From Middle Dutch minnekijn (“darling, beloved”), from minne (“love”) (cf. minnesinger) and the diminutive suffix -kijn.

noun minikins

  1. countable, obsolete, uncountable A young person, especially a young woman.
  2. countable, obsolete, uncountable A small or insignificant person, thing or amount.
  3. countable, obsolete, uncountable A little pin. There were about forty lines; and such lines! of all sorts and sizes, like a paper of mixed pins, […] long and short, corkings and minikins, jumbled altogether!
  4. UK, dated, uncountable The size of type smaller than brilliant, standardized as 3-point.

    Similar: excelsior

adjective more minikin · most minikin

  1. obsolete Diminutive or miniature.

minikin²

Where it comes from

From Miniken, a 16th-century English form of the place name Munich, a German city where such strings were produced and from which they were imported. Miniken is derived from then-contemporary German Münichen.

noun minikins

  1. countable, uncountable The treble string of a lute.

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MLA

"minikin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/minikin. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

minikin. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/minikin

Chicago

"minikin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/minikin.

BibTeX
@misc{minikin_2026,
  title = {minikin},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/minikin},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}