Diminish

How to spell diminish

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce diminish

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does diminish mean?

1. verbTo make or become less in size, importance, or intensity.

Diminish in a sentence

• Steady savings will not diminish your monthly spending power.

• Nothing she said could diminish his confidence before the interview.

Where does diminish come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Diminish is a curious blend of two older verbs that fused in late Middle English. The main part comes from the Latin minuere, meaning 'to make smaller' or 'to lessen', which is built on the root minus, meaning 'less'. English already had an inherited verb 'minish', meaning to reduce, taken through Old French from that same Latin source. Around the same time, speakers were influenced by 'diminuen', from the Latin diminuere, where the prefix added a sense of breaking down or lessening completely. The two words collided and merged into the single form 'diminish' by the 1400s, which is why the spelling carries both the di- opening and the -minish body. The same minus root survives in the everyday words 'minute', 'minor', and 'minimum', all of which share the idea of smallness.

How the word is built

• di- (intensive, from de-)
• minish (to lessen, from Latin minutus 'made small')