| 释义 |
minority|mɪˈnɒrɪtɪ|
[ad. F. minorité or med.L. minōritās, f. L. minōr-em minor: see -ity. Cf. Sp. minoridad, Pg. minoridade, It. minorità.]
†1. The condition or fact of being smaller, inferior, or subordinate. Obs.
1533More Answ. to Poysoned Bk. Wks. 1051/2 The minoritie, and the obedyence yt the scripture speketh of in Christ, is all ment of his manhod. 1592Kyd Sol. & Pers. iv. ii. 62 What, art thou that petty pigmie that chalenged me at Rhodes, whom I refused to combat for his minoritie? 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. vi. 117 There may, I confesse, from this narrow time of gestation ensue a minority, or smallnesse in the exclusion. 1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v. Character, {ltflat} Is the sign of minority.
2. a. The state of being minor or under age; the period during which a person remains under age; nonage; in minority, † within minority, under age.
1547Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 78 Dispensand with thair minorite and less aige,..without payment of ony teind penny. 1579–80North Plutarch, Comp. Theseus & Rom. (1595) 45 Theseus..stole awaye Helen in hir minoritie, being nothing neere to consent to marrye. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 217 The Pupill..is held under daies or in minority till he be twenty one yeres old. 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 7, I..being young, and within minority. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xviii. 432 The minority of Princes ought not to lessen their Subjects reverence unto them. 1751H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 404 It is become the peculiarity of the House of Orange to have minorities. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 76 A youth in England, emerging from his minority. 1874Green Short Hist. vi. §1. 265 The long minority of Henry the Sixth, who was a boy of nine months old at his father's death. 1920Act 10 & 11 Geo. V c. 64 §2 A husband of full age,..whose wife is in minority, shall be her curator during her minority.
†b. The early part of life, youth. Obs.
1632Lithgow Trav. ix. 415 Such a man can neither seduce his minority with ill examples, nor marre his waxen age with a false impression. 1728R. Morris Ess. Anc. Archit. p. xix, A Principle imbibed in Minority.
c. transf. and fig. Now rare.
1611Donne Anat. World, 1st Annivers. (1625) 12 When Stag, and Rauen, and the long liu'd tree..dy'de in minoritee. 1631Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 160 An old booke in broken English, which crept into the world in the minoritie of Printing. 1632tr. Bruel's Praxis Med. 59 This disease..doth sticke close to the patient, vnlesse it bee taken away by medicines in its minority. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. vii. 25 Yet are our authorities but temporary and not to be imbraced beyond the minority of our intellectuals. 1653Milton Hirelings Wks. 1851 V. 373 For the Magistrate..to make the Church his meer Ward, as always in Minority,..is neither just nor pious. 1742Young Nt. Th. vi. 616 In this her dark minority, how toils..the human soul!
3. a. The smaller number or part; a number which is less than half the whole number; spec. the smaller party voting together against a majority in a deliberative assembly or electoral body.
1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict., Minority (lesser number). 1755in Johnson. 1789Burke Corr. (1844) III. 95 We are a minority; but then we are a very large minority. 1790― Fr. Rev. (ed. 2) 186 In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 137 The tone of men, who are conscious that they are in a minority. 1828Macaulay Ess., Hallam ad fin., Conspiracies and insurrections in which small minorities are engaged. 1886–94H. Spencer Autobiogr. II. liii. 298 It is my habit to say what I think, though I may so show myself one of a very small minority, or even a minority of one. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 1004 The insufficiency of the mitral valve, which occurs in a minority of cases of exophthalmic goitre. 1903R. D. Shaw Pauline Ep. ii. i. 86 Men of pure Gallic blood must in Paul's time have been greatly in the minority.
b. A small group of people separated from the rest of the community by a difference in race, religion, language, etc. Also in quasi-adj. use.
1921H. W. V. Temperley et al. Hist. Peace Conf. Paris V. ii. 112 These treaties provide for the protection of racial, linguistic, or religious minorities included within the boundaries of the specified States. 1930Economist 29 Nov. 1001/1 The Nazis and the Stahlhelm have been conducting reprisals against the Polish minority in Germany. 1937Times 24 Feb. 13/3 The concessions made by the Prague Government to sections of the German minority..are disconcerting to any plans..for a large-scale minorities campaign. 1945Ann. Reg. 1944 26 Some broad general declaration by the United Nations deprecating the ill-treatment by a state of its minorities. 1945L. Wirth in R. Linton Sci. of Man 347 The existence of a minority in a society implies the existence of a corresponding dominant group enjoying higher social status and greater privileges. 1970Washington Post 30 Sept. B. 14/4 A hard-hat worker who loses his job to a minority worker. 1973Black Panther 3 Mar. 13/3 In civil rights, aid to minority business enterprises is stressed, rather than to the minority poor. 1975Atlantic Monthly Jan. 29/1 By ‘minority’ today, we mean a disadvantaged group of citizens. Ibid., Today, by a ‘minority’ we mean not the privileged at the top, but the underprivileged at the bottom.
4. In voting, the number of votes cast for or by the party opposed to the majority.
1774Burke Sp. Amer. Tax. Wks. II. 414 The minority did not reach to more than 39 or 40. 1788Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 533 The minorities in most of the accepting States have been very acceptable.
5. attrib. and Comb., as minority carrier Electronics, a charge carrier of the kind carrying the smaller proportion of the electric current in a semiconducting material (cf. majority carrier s.v. majority 7); minority debt, a debt incurred by a person while under age; minority group, a group forming a minority (sense 3 b); minority language, a language spoken by a minority group if different from that of the majority; minority man, one who is in a minority or tries to secure recognition of the claims of minorities; minority member, a member appointed to a board, committee, or the like to represent a minority; minority movement, a movement to secure justice or proper representation for minorities; minority platform U.S., the ‘platform’ put forward by the minority of a party; minority report, a separate report framed by those members of a committee or other body who are unable to agree with the majority; minority rights, rights granted to minorities to act as a safeguard of their interests and help prevent discrimination against them by the majority; minority teller, one who counts or records votes for a minority; † minority waiter (meaning obscure; by some explained as ‘a waiter out of work’, by others as ‘an extraordinary tide-waiter’, i.e. one not regularly employed).
1951*Minority carrier [see majority carrier s.v. majority 7]. 1962Simpson & Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors iv. 60 Another variation in charge in the vicinity of the junction arises from the injection or extraction of minority carriers under conditions of forward or very small reverse bias respectively. 1969J. J. Sparkes Transistor Switching i. 3 The current from one junction to the other is carried by minority carriers.
1897Daily News 13 May 8/5 The half-crown cigars were also *minority debts? 1905Daily Chron. 24 June 6/6 He has raised {pstlg}45,000..out of which he paid his minority debts.
1942Locke & Stern When Peoples Meet i. iv. 125 Such..inclusion of *minority groups is in marked and often ironic contrast to the more normal ‘divide and rule’ policy..of dominant groups. 1964M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. vii. 94 Several studies show that prejudice increases with the density of the minority group in an area. 1971R. Bendix in A. Bullock 20th Cent. 357/1 The citizenship of racial minorities remains an unresolved problem. Members of minority groups are denied rights which are formally theirs.
1939L. H. Gray Foundations of Lang. v. 118 *Minority-languages may thus be not merely linguistic in interest, but may also constitute political problems of all degrees of importance.
1927Observer 1 May 17/1 It was a curious moment..to choose for legislation calculated..to revive the power of ‘*minority men’ and direct actionists in Britain.
1874Porcupine 31 Jan. 693/2 The city of London has already conceded a *minority member.
1927Daily Tel. 6 Sept. 7/3 He did not agree with the *Minority Movement.
1901N. Amer. Rev. Feb. 271 The captors were able to defeat the *minority platform.
1833Reg. Deb. Congress U.S. 2 Mar. 1927 A new set of majority and *minority reports are to be launched upon the public. 1940B. de Voto (title) Minority report. 1958Everyman's Encycl. XII. 532/2 With Sidney Webb..she [sc. Beatrice Webb] issued the minority report which initiated the Socialist agitation for the reform of the old Poor Law.
1924R. W. Seton-Watson New Slovakia vi. 104 Such international opinion as regards the ‘*Minority rights’ provided for by the Peace Treaties, as a moral obligation assumed by all members of the League of Nations. 1955I. L. Claude National Minorities xii. 166 Whenever the issue must be squarely faced, the U.S. takes the lead..in opposing the concept of special minority rights. 1972‘E. Lathen’ The Longer the Thread viii. 74 She was a Puerto Rican—yet she had never served on a commission about minority rights.
1902Daily Chron. 27 Feb. 5/1 He had to occupy the unusual position of being the *minority-teller at the table.
1775Sheridan Rivals ii. i, I told Thomas that your Honour had already inlisted five disbanded chairmen, seven *minority waiters, and thirteen billiard markers.
b. quasi-adj. Of, for, composed of, or appealing to a minority (of people); freq. with the suggestion of ‘serious, intellectual, highbrow’ (as opposed to mass n.2 10).
1930F. R. Leavis (title) Mass civilization and minority culture. 1932Q. D. Leavis Fiction & Reading Public ii. iv. §3. 199 Enough attention has perhaps been given to the effects of minority values. 1941Partisan Rev. Mar.–Apr. 111 Leisured people who have been brought up in a minority culture. 1944L. MacNeice Christopher Columbus 9, I am in favour of occasional special [radio] programmes for small minority audiences. 1958R. Williams Culture & Society iii. iii. 235 Those extreme forms of the idea of a ‘minority culture’. 195920th Cent. Nov. 324 Serious minority programmes [on television] at peak hours. Ibid. 333 A place remains for it [sc. sound radio]..in the evenings for special minority interests and for music. 1960Housewife Apr. 10/2 The Editor..considers very few subjects indeed too ‘minority’ or too apparently trivial to be given a sensible airing. 1971Guardian 22 Feb. 8/1 Even from the BBC..a complete diet of minority-interest programmes..would not be..acceptable. 1972P. Black Biggest Aspidistra i. iv. 42 The heat was taken off the minority drama.
Add:[3.] [b.] Also (U.S.), a member of a minority group.
1961G. Green Heartless Light 167 She was one of Eliot Sparling's neutralized minorities, adopting the rolling R's and constricted vowels of Los Angeles. 1976Time 20 Dec. 11/1 He was worried about the need for new young blood in Government, for more women and minorities. 1985Albuquerque Jrnl. 11 Dec. a3/3 If all other qualifications are roughly equal, they should select a minority or a woman... During the past year, UNM hired six minorities and 21 women. 1991D. D'Souza Illiberal Education v. 156 Minority is the late 20th century term for nigger. |
