# Minuscule/miniscule **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minuscule-miniscule/417618 "2007-08-31T14:16:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minuscule-miniscule/417618/1 "2007-08-31T14:16:05Z")
My three-year-old daughter got the latest issue of _Sesame Street Magazine_ – great mag, by the way – the other day, which included a page or two revolving around a TV character named “Pinky Dinky Doo,” who uses in each episode a “great big, fancy word.” The word in this particular case was “miniscule.” (Note the second _i_.) “Gee,” I thought, “they introduce a big word to the kids and then consistently misspell it. How unfortunate. On the other hand, everybody has an off day now and then.” Flash forward a week or so to today, when I check out [Cecil’s Straight Dope column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070831.html), wherein CA writes, _. . .there’s no real reason to think some amount of it, however miniscule, won’t come back through the tap._ Hmmm, curiouser and curiouser. Now the Perfect Master is doing it. Have I missed a memo or something? Checking it out on [www.m-w.com](http://www.m-w.com), I see that it is a variant that _now occurs commonly in published writing, but it continues to be widely regarded as an error._ OK, so either “miniscule” is now perceived as legitimate, or Little Ed mis-edited Cecil’s writing (again). Which is it? Anybody know? RR ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minuscule-miniscule/417618/2 "2007-08-31T14:22:35Z")
It’s listed in several dictionaries as a variant. I expect it happened because of the ‘mini’ in ‘miniature’, which is a related concept, even though it arises from a completely different root word. Minuscule comes from the Latin \*minus \*(small) Miniature comes from the Latin \*minium \*(red lead oxide) - referring to a particular type of painting, which coincidentally happened to be small. ---
**Author:** ![Micro\_Dot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Micro\_Dot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Micro_Dot)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minuscule-miniscule/417618/3 "2007-08-31T17:22:05Z")
Dictionries are full of such variants/varuants ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minuscule-miniscule/417618/4 "2007-08-31T17:47:50Z")
I’ll be darned. I’ve never before seen the minuscule spelling, not that it’s a very common word. Some folks even stress the middle syllable (min-ISK-yule.) I continue to learn. I was over 50 before I learned I had been messing up “epitaph.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/minuscule-miniscule/417618/5 "2007-08-31T20:38:59Z")
Millennium is another word has a few variations, whether you agreed with it or not.