minutia

Borrowed from Latin minutia, from minūtus (“small, little”), from minuō (“make smaller”).

• IPA^(key): /maɪˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/, /məˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/

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minutia (plural minutiae or minutiæ)

1. A minor detail, often of negligible importance.

   They spent all their time on minutiae, never making real progress.

   • 1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, 2nd edition, volume I, London: T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, published 1768, page 159:

     I think I can ſee the preciſe and diſtinguiſhing marks of national characters more in theſe nonſenſical minutiæ, than in the moſt important matters of ſtate ; where great men of all nations talk and ſtalk ſo much alike, that I would not give ninepence to chuſe amongſt them.

2. (biometrics, forensics) Any of the point features on fingerprints used for matching, usually endings and bifurcations of ridges.

• minūtiēs

From minūtus (“diminished”) +‎ -ia.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /miˈnuː.ti.a/, [mɪˈnuːt̪iä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /miˈnut.t͡si.a/, [miˈnut̪ː͡s̪iä]

minūtia f (genitive minūtiae); first declension

1. smallness, minuteness
2. small thing, trifle

First-declension noun.

• “minutia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• minutia in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• minutia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.