Hello again word-wonderers! In this episode we explore the darker and more ominous side of language, as we examine the word ‘minacious’. ‘Minacious’ is used to describe something that is menacing or threatening.

An example in context is “The shuttle traders asked the government to legalize and regulate their vanishing trade and thus to save them from avaricious and minacious customs officials.”

First recorded in the 1650s, ‘minacious’ stems from the Latin ‘minaci-’, itself a stem of ‘minax’ "threatening, or menacing", from minari "to threaten;" While it is not a very commonly used word it can still be used as an adverb in ‘minaciously’ or as a noun ‘minacity’.

The same is the root for the more common synonym ‘menace’ which is a declaration of hostile intent’ also ‘a threat or act of threatening’. The Latin ‘minaciæ’ or "threatening things," from minax (genitive minacis) "threatening," from minari "threaten; jut, project," as something overhanging, jutting out, over your head, threatening to fall.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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