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prettygoodwordcomminute - v., to reduce to fine particles.
Especially by pounding or abrading. To pulverize. Also an adjective, meaning something that has been turned into a powder. Pronounced KOM-eh-noot since the 1620s in, I gather, largely medical contexts (medicines being comminuted, and all that). Taken from Latin comminūtus, participle of comminuere, to pulverize, from com-, intensifying prefix + minuere, to lessen, making it a cognate of minor and minute.
---L.
Especially by pounding or abrading. To pulverize. Also an adjective, meaning something that has been turned into a powder. Pronounced KOM-eh-noot since the 1620s in, I gather, largely medical contexts (medicines being comminuted, and all that). Taken from Latin comminūtus, participle of comminuere, to pulverize, from com-, intensifying prefix + minuere, to lessen, making it a cognate of minor and minute.
---L.
