MINOR

I. adjective Etymology: Latin, smaller, inferior; akin to Old High German minniro smaller, Latin minuere to lessen Date: 1526 inferior in importance, size, or degree ; comparatively unimportant, not having reached majority, 3. having half steps between the second and third, the fifth and sixth, and sometimes the seventh and eighth degrees , based on a ~ scale , less by a semitone than the corresponding major interval , having a ~ third above the root , not serious or involving risk to life , of or relating to an academic subject requiring fewer courses than a major, II. noun Date: 1612 a person who has not attained majority, a ~ musical interval, scale, key, or mode, 3. a ~ academic subject, a student taking a specified ~, a determinant or matrix obtained from a given determinant or matrix by eliminating the row and column in which a given element lies, ~ league baseball, III. intransitive verb Date: 1926 to take courses in a ~ subject