minute

Etymology 1

From Middle English mynute, minute, mynet, from Old French minute, from Medieval Latin minūta (“60th of an hour; note”). Doublet of menu and menudo.

noun

1. A unit of time equal to sixty seconds (one-sixtieth of an hour).
   You have twenty minutes to complete the test.
2. (informal) A short but unspecified time period.
   Wait a minute, I’m not ready yet!
3. A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a degree.
   We need to be sure these maps are accurate to within one minute of arc.
4. (chiefly in the plural, minutes) A (usually formal) written record of a meeting or a part of a meeting.
   Let’s look at the minutes of last week’s meeting.
   The Clerk or 'recording Clerk' drafts a minute and then, or at a later time, reads it to the Meeting. Subsequent contributions are on the wording of the minute only, until it can be accepted by the Meeting. Once the minute is accepted, the Meeting moves on to the next item on the agenda. 2008, Pink Dandelion, The Quakers: A Very Short Introduction, page 52
5. A unit of purchase on a telephone or other similar network, especially a cell phone network, roughly equivalent in gross form to sixty seconds' use of the network.
   If you buy this model, you’ll get 100 free minutes.
6. A point in time; a moment.
   Tell her, that I some Certainty may bring; / I go this minute to attend the king. 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe
7. A nautical or a geographic mile.
8. An old coin, a half farthing.
9. (obsolete) A very small part of anything, or anything very small; a jot; a whit.
   […]according to the Prophecies of him, which were so clear and descended to minutes and circumstances of his passion 1660, Jeremy Taylor, “Of the Probable or Thinking Conscience.”, in Ductor Dubitantium, or, The Rule of Conscience in all her Generall Measures Serving as a Great Instrument for the Determination of Cases of Conscience, volume 1
10. (architecture) A fixed part of a module.
11. (slang, US, Canada, dialectal) A while or a long unspecified period of time
    Oh, I ain't heard that song in a minute!
    “Man, I haven’t seen you in a minute,” he says, smiling still. “Maybe like two, three years ago?” 2010, Kenneth Ring, Letters from Palestine, page 18
    I seen Too$hort up there. Me and $hort ain't talked in a minute. June 10 2010, Lil B, Complex.com
    RON:I remember my first. I was a minute younger than you. […]I remember thinking, saying to myself..."This is the first time I'm eating as a person who killed someone." 2016-11-08, Ben Katai, Josh Corbin, Sharon Lennon, directed by Ben Katai, StartUp(Recapitalization) (StartUp (TV series)), season 1, episode 10 (TV), spoken by Ronald Dacey (Edi Gathegi)

verb

1. (transitive) Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.
   I’ll minute this evening’s meeting.
   I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting, memoranduming, and despatch-boxing, on this mighty subject. 1870 [June 27, 1855], Charles Dickens, “Administrative Reform”, in Speeches Literary and Social, page 133
   On 17 November 1949 Jay minuted Cripps, arguing that trade liberalization on inessentials was socially regressive. 1995, Edmund Dell, The Schuman Plan and the British Abdication of Leadership in Europe
   The Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Sir Richard Peirse, was sceptical of its findings, minuting, ‘I don’t think at this rate we could have hoped to produce the damage which is known to have been achieved.’ 1996, Peter Hinchliffe, The Other Battle
   Mr. Klingstadt, chief Auditor of the Admiralty of that city, sent for and examined them very particularly concerning the events which had befallen them; minuting down their answers in writing, with an intention of publishing himself an account of their extraordinary adventures. 2003, David Roberts, Four Against the Arctic
2. To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.
   The Empress of Russia, with her own hand, minuted an edict for universal tolerance. 1876 [1834], George Bancroft, History of the United States from the discovery of the American continent, volume VI, pages 28–29

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin minūtus (“small", "petty”), perfect passive participle of minuō (“make smaller”).

adj

1. Very small.
   They found only minute quantities of chemical residue on his clothing.
2. Very careful and exact, giving small details.
   The lawyer gave the witness a minute examination.
   The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail. 2013 July-August, Fenella Saunders, “Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture”, in American Scientist