different between minority vs nonage

English

Etymology

From Middle French minorité, and its source Late Latin min?rit?s, from Latin minor.

Morphologically minor +? -ity

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ma??n??.?.ti/, /m??n??.?.ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ma??n??.?.ti/, /m??n??.?.ti/
• (NYC) IPA^(key): /ma??n??.?.ti/, /m??n??.?.ti/
• Rhymes: -???ti

Noun

minority (countable and uncountable, plural minorities)

1. The state of being a minor; youth, the period of a person's life prior to reaching adulthood. [from 15th c.]
   • 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin 2012, p. 117:

     She also played a key role as dowager-regent during the minority of her son.

   Synonym: childhood

   Antonym: adulthood

2. Any subgroup that does not form a numerical majority. [from 18th c.]
   • 2017 August 25, "Arrest threat as Yingluck Shinawatra misses verdict", in aljazeera.com, Al Jazeera

     The case is the latest chapter in a decade-long struggle by the nation's elite minority to crush the powerful political machine founded by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in another coup in 2006.

   Antonym: majority

3. (politics, used attributively of a party, government, etc.) Empowered by or representing a minority (usually a plurality) of votes cast, legislative seats, etc., rather than an outright majority thereof.
4. (US) A member of an ethnic minority. [from 20th c.]

Derived terms

Related terms

• minor

Translations

Adjective

minority (comparative more minority, superlative most minority)

1. Of or relating to a minority.

English

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman nounage, corresponding to non- +? age.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n??n?d?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?no?n?d?/

Noun

nonage (plural nonages)

1. The state of being under legal age; minority, the fact of being a minor. [from 15th c.]
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act II, Scene 3, [1]

     In him there is a hope of government, / That in his nonage council under him, / And in his full and ripen'd years himself, / No doubt, shall then and till then govern well.

   • c. 1608, John Donne, A Litany, stanza VI, "The Angels" in The Poems of John Donne, edited by Edmund Kerchever Chambers, London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896, [2]

     And since this life our nonage is, / And we in wardship to Thine angels be, / Native in heaven's fair palaces / Where we shall be but denizen'd by Thee;

   • 1723, Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury:

     The other he used to recreate himself with, after he had been solemnly Contracted to his intended Spouse who was in her Nonage, and kept her till his Wife was ripe for Consummation.

   • 1917, James Cabell, The Cream of the Jest, New York: Modern Library, 1922, Chapter 39, p. 235, [3]

     Romancers, from Time's nonage, have invented and have manipulated a host of staple severances for their puppet lovers […]

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 17, [4]

     Which appeal caused but a strange dumb gesturing and gurgling in Billy; amazement at such an accusation so suddenly sprung on inexperienced nonage […]

Etymology 2

From Late Latin nonagium, from n?nus (“ninth”).

Noun

nonage (plural nonages)

1. (obsolete, rare) A payment formerly made to the parish clergy upon the death of a parishioner, consisting of a ninth of the movable goods.

Anagrams

• Genoan, gonane