minutia

Borrowed from Latin minutia, from minūtus (“small, little”), from minuō (“make smaller”).

• IPA^(key): /maɪ̯ˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/, /məˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/

• Audio (UK):

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• Hyphenation: mi‧nu‧ti‧a

minutia (plural minutiae or (obsolete) minutiæ)

2. A minor detail, often of negligible importance.

   They spent all their time on minutiae, never making real progress.

   • 1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, 2nd edition, volume I, London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, published 1768, page 159:

     I think I can ſee the preciſe and diſtinguiſhing marks of national characters more in theſe nonſenſical minutiæ, than in the moſt important matters of ſtate ; where great men of all nations talk and ſtalk ſo much alike, that I would not give ninepence to chuſe amongſt them.

4. (biometrics, forensics) Any of the point features on fingerprints used for matching, usually endings and bifurcations of ridges.

• “minutia”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• minūtiēs

From minūtus (“diminished”) +‎ -ia.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [mɪˈnuː.ti.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [miˈnut.t͡si.a]
• Hyphenation: mi‧nū‧ti‧a

minūtia f (genitive minūtiae); first declension

1. smallness, minuteness
2. small thing, trifle

First-declension noun.

• “minutia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "minutia", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “minutia”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.