Minor

a. [Lat., the comparative degree of a word not found in that language, but existing in other Indo-European dialects, A-S. minn, Goth. mins, Ir. & Gael. min, mion, mean, W. main, Arm. moan, moon, Gr. μείων, It. minore, Pr. menre, menor, Sp., Pg., & O. Fr. menor, N. Fr. mineur. Cf. MINCE.]

1. Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, &c.; less; smaller; of little account; as, minor divisions of a body.
2. (Mus.) Less or lower by a semitone; as, a minor third.

Asia Minor (Geog.), the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine or Black Sea on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south. — Minor mode, or key (Mus.), that key, or arrangement of tones and semitones, which is chiefly used for solemn and mournful subjects. See MAJOR. — Minor term of a syllogism (Logic), the subject of the conclusion.

n. 1. A person of either sex under age; one who has not yet arrived at the power of managing his own estate; in England and the United States, one not yet twenty-one years of age. Wharton.

2. (Logic.) The minor term, that is, the subject of the conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms, the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of money from another by gaming partakes of meanness.
3. A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.