Definition of the word minim

The word "minim" originally comes from the medieval musical notation system known as neumes or square notation, which was a precursor to modern staff notation. In this system, musical notes were represented by different shapes and sizes, and the notes that appeared in square or rectangular shapes were called "minims." The term "minim" was introduced by the French composers of the Renaissance era, who continued to use neumes in their music and developed a system of symbols to represent notes of different durations. In this system, the square-shaped note used in neumes became known as the "minim," which denoted a note of half the duration of a long note. Eventually, as staff notation replaced neumes, the term "minim" continued to be used to describe a half-note in modern musical notation systems, such as in Western classical music. Over time, the word has also come to be used in other contexts, such as in computer science, where it refers to the smallest unit of time used to measure processes or calculations.