Meanings
alternative minoratyve
- not comparableThat diminishes or attenuates
- not comparableobsoleteGently laxative.
Nothing but minorative apozems should be ordered.
1747, Jean Astruc (author; translator unknown), Academical Lectures on Fevers, page 1121 more example
Clysters sometymes do supplye the rowme of minoratyve medicines.
1543, Bartholomew Traheron (translator), Joannes de Vigo (author), The Most Excellent Workes of Chirurgerye, book IX, addendum, page 225
plural minoratives · alternative minoratyve
- obsoleteA gently laxative medicine.
Others give minoratives more frequently.
1747, Jean Astruc (author; translator unknown), Academical Lectures on Fevers, page 2321 more example
When […] wee feare lest nature faint before perfect concoction, we may sometimes use a gentle minorative.
1633, James Hart, Κλινική; or, The Diet of the Diseased, book III, chapter xiv, page 284
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Middle Frenchminoratif
- Englishminorative
From the late-Middle French minoratif, minorative (“that diminishes or lessens”, of a medicine “mildly laxative”; as a noun “a mild laxative”), from minorer (“to diminish the importance [of]”). Equivalent to minorate (“diminish”, “lessen”) + -ive. Compare the post-Classical (i.e. 9th C.) Latin minōrātīvus.
More words from Middle French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
minorative. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minorative
“minorative.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minorative. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “minorative,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minorative.
Source: minorative on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.