minute [LME] English words spelled minute have two different pronunciations and entered English by different routes, but share an origin in Latin minutus ‘small’, the source also of *mince, menu, and many other words. The closest to the original Latin sense is minute ‘small’. The minute referring to a period of 60 seconds comes through medieval Latin pars minuta prima ‘first minute part [of an hour]’. The use of minute in the minutes of a meeting goes back to the times before printing, when a scribe would make a rough version of a record or memorandum in ‘small writing’ (Latin scriptura minuta) before the fair copy was made in the more formal style of writing called ‘book hand’. See also hour, second.