different between hireling vs minion

English

Etymology

From Middle English hirlyng, from Old English h?rling (“hireling, employee”), from Proto-West Germanic *h??ijuling. Cognate with West Frisian hierling, Dutch huurling (“hireling, mercenary”), German Low German Hüürling,German Heuerling.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ha?.?.l??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ha???l??/

Noun

hireling (plural hirelings)

1. (usually derogatory) An employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.
   • 1611, King James Version, Job 7:1:

     Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

   • 1848: William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 19:

     When my poor James was in the smallpox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?

2. (usually derogatory) Someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself.
   • 1605: Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning

     ... it may be truly affirmed that no kind of men love business for itself but those that are learned; for other persons love it for profit, as a hireling that loves the work for the wages;

   • 1821, Lord Byron, Sardanapalus, Act II, sc. 1:

     These vain bickerings

     Are spawn'd in courts by base intrigues and baser

     Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives.

3. A horse for hire.
   • 1934, Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust, Chapter 3, Section 5:

     In the afternoon they went to a neighbouring livery stables to look for hirellings.

4. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Synonyms

• flunky
• lackey
• mercenary

Translations

See also

• underling

English

Etymology

1490, from Middle French mignon (“lover, royal favourite, darling”), from Old French mignon (“dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind”), from Frankish *minnju (“love, friendship, affection, memory”), from Proto-Germanic *minþij?, *mindij? (“affectionate thought, care”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?nj?n/
• Homophone: minyan
• Rhymes: -?nj?n
• Hyphenation: min?ion

Noun

minion (countable and uncountable, plural minions)

1. A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.

   Synonyms: disciple, follower; see also Thesaurus:loyal follower

2. A sycophantic follower.
3. (obsolete) A loved one; one highly esteemed and favoured.
   • 1608, Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas his divine weekes and workes

     God's disciple and his dearest minion
4. (obsolete) An ancient form of ordnance with a calibre of about three inches.
5. (uncountable, typography, printing) The size of type between nonpareil and brevier, standardized as 7-point.
6. Obsolete form of minimum.

   • Of philosophers and scholars priscae sapientiae dictatores, I have already spoken in general terms, those superintendents of wit and learning, men above men, those refined men, minions of the muses.

Derived terms

• (type size): minionette
• miniondom
• minionhood
• minioning
• minionish
• minionlike
• minionly
• minionship

Translations

Adjective

minion (comparative more minion, superlative most minion)

1. (obsolete) Favoured, beloved; "pet".

   • These favours, with the commodities that follow minion Courtiers, corrupt […] his libertie, and dazle his judgement.

Chuukese

Etymology

Borrowed from English million.

Numeral

minion

1. million

Welsh

Etymology

From min +? -ion.

Noun

minion

1. plural of min

Mutation