minnow

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

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”)).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnəʊ/

  Rhymes: -ɪnəʊ

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.

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

• minnower

• pinkeen