Other forms: minorities
A minority is the smaller side, fewer than half. A small minority, in a minority, a minority view.
In politics, a minority government has fewer than half the seats and must find support for every vote. A minority also means a group smaller than the main population, defined by ethnicity, religion or language, and minority rights is the whole field of protecting them from majority decisions. Note minority interest; and that a vocal minority can be mistaken for a majority by anybody counting the noise rather than the people.
1nounminorityThe smaller side; fewer than half.
“Only a small minority of the students voted against the plan.”
2noungroupA group smaller than the main population.
“The new law protects the rights of religious minorities.”
minority is a smaller part or group.
Latin minoritas comes from minor, smaller. Minor, minority, minus and minimum all descend from it, and the political sense is a nineteenth-century development from the plain arithmetic.
Latin
minōritās
Middle French
minorité
Middle English
minoritie
English, today
minority
From Late Middle English minoritie, from Middle French minorité, and its source Latin minōritās, from Latin minor. Morphologically minor + ity.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA