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comminute (KOM-uh-noot) - v., to break into smaller pieces; to pulverize, smash, powder.
Also an adjective meaning broken up or pulverized. This is a tricky one to get a handle on: the resulting pieces can be either substantive on their own, as when a property is comminuted into smaller plots, or not, as when comminuting a medicine to a powder. It's also rare: I can't recall running across it very often, and it always feels needlessly recondite. Adopted in the 1620s from Latin comminutus, past participle of comminuere, to lessen/break into smaller parts, from com-, together, acting as an intensifier + minuere, to make smaller (as in minus).
ObTrivia: the earliest known use of weak sauce is 1992.
---L.
Also an adjective meaning broken up or pulverized. This is a tricky one to get a handle on: the resulting pieces can be either substantive on their own, as when a property is comminuted into smaller plots, or not, as when comminuting a medicine to a powder. It's also rare: I can't recall running across it very often, and it always feels needlessly recondite. Adopted in the 1620s from Latin comminutus, past participle of comminuere, to lessen/break into smaller parts, from com-, together, acting as an intensifier + minuere, to make smaller (as in minus).
ObTrivia: the earliest known use of weak sauce is 1992.
---L.
