Minatory

WORD OF THE DAY

 

MINATORY \ MIN-uh-tor-ee \ adjective

 

Definition

: having a menacing quality

 

Examples

In the moonlight, the twisted winter trees took on a particularly baleful and minatory appearance.

"No one likes to hear or heed prophets of doom, but history is replete with them.… The minatory mutterings of the Delphic Oracle were often unheeded by the Greeks."
— Brian Roche, Redlands (California) Daily Facts, 28 Sept. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Knowing that minatory means "threatening," can you take a guess at a related word? If you're familiar with mythology, perhaps you guessed Minotaur, the name of the bull-headed, people-eating monster of Crete. Minotaur is a good guess, but as terrifying as the monster sounds, its name isn't related to today's word. The relative we're searching for is actually menace.

Minatory and menace both come from derivatives of the Latin verb minari, which means "to threaten." Minatory was borrowed directly from Late Latin minatorius. Menace came to English via Anglo-French manace, menace, which came from Latin minac-, minax, meaning "threatening."