Minoration

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /mʌɪnəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/

Definitions

1. The process of reducing a quantity or quality
2. The act or process of making something smaller or less intense
3. A reduction in size, extent, or importance of something

Etymology: "Minoration" is a rare, technical-sounding noun that descends from the Latin adjective "minor", meaning "smaller" or "lesser", which is also the source of English "minor" and "minus" through other routes. The Latin verb "minōrāre" meant to lessen or diminish, and from its stem came the Late Latin noun "minoratio", a reduction or lessening. English took the word directly from that Late Latin form, so its shape has changed very little across the centuries. The core meaning is simply the act of making something smaller, lesser, or reduced in size, amount, or degree. Because it is built on a comparative root that also gave us "minister" and "minimum" in different lines of descent, readers who know those words will recognise the same idea of "lesser" running underneath. The word is seldom used in everyday speech, and most people will meet it only in formal or specialist writing.