mincer

See also: Mincer

English

Etymology

From mince ‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪnsɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

mincer (plural mincers)

1. A kitchen utensil used for mincing meat, etc.
2. Someone who minces.
3. (British, slang, derogatory) A homosexual male.

Derived terms

• word-mincer

 

Translations

a kitchen utensil used for mincing meat — see meatgrinder

References

• (homosexual male): Tony Thorne (2014) “mincer”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury

Anagrams

• crimen

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French mincier, of disputed origin. Often purported to be from Vulgar Latin *minūtiāre, a verb based on Latin minūtus, though the phonetic development poses several problems. The proper outcome of Vulgar Latin *minūtiāre is rather the Old French menusier, menuiser (“to reduce to small pieces”), modern French menuiser. Old French mincier, however, more likely derives from Frankish *minnistō (“smaller, finer”) or Frankish *minnisōn (“to make small, make smaller”), thus relating it to Old English ġeminsian (“to reduce, make smaller, lessen”), whence English mince.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̃.se/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

mincer

1. chop into fine pieces

Conjugation

This verb is part of a group of -er verbs for which 'c' is softened to a 'ç' before the vowels 'a' and 'o'.

Conjugation of mincer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mincer
	compound	avoir past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	minçant /mɛ̃.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		mincé /mɛ̃.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mince /mɛ̃s/	minces /mɛ̃s/	mince /mɛ̃s/	minçons /mɛ̃.sɔ̃/	mincez /mɛ̃.se/	mincent /mɛ̃s/
	imperfect	minçais /mɛ̃.sɛ/	minçais /mɛ̃.sɛ/	minçait /mɛ̃.sɛ/	mincions /mɛ̃.sjɔ̃/	minciez /mɛ̃.sje/	minçaient /mɛ̃.sɛ/
	past historic2	minçai /mɛ̃.se/	minças /mɛ̃.sa/	minça /mɛ̃.sa/	minçâmes /mɛ̃.sam/	minçâtes /mɛ̃.sat/	mincèrent /mɛ̃.sɛʁ/
	future	mincerai /mɛ̃.sʁe/	minceras /mɛ̃.sʁa/	mincera /mɛ̃.sʁa/	mincerons /mɛ̃.sʁɔ̃/	mincerez /mɛ̃.sʁe/	minceront /mɛ̃.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mincerais /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/	mincerais /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/	mincerait /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/	mincerions /mɛ̃.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	minceriez /mɛ̃.sə.ʁje/	minceraient /mɛ̃.sʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	mince /mɛ̃s/	minces /mɛ̃s/	mince /mɛ̃s/	mincions /mɛ̃.sjɔ̃/	minciez /mɛ̃.sje/	mincent /mɛ̃s/
	imperfect2	minçasse /mɛ̃.sas/	minçasses /mɛ̃.sas/	minçât /mɛ̃.sa/	minçassions /mɛ̃.sa.sjɔ̃/	minçassiez /mɛ̃.sa.sje/	minçassent /mɛ̃.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	mince /mɛ̃s/	—	minçons /mɛ̃.sɔ̃/	mincez /mɛ̃.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir past participle	simple imperative of avoir past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• mince
• émincer

Related terms

• menuiser

Further reading

• “mincer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.