Minutist

Minutist is an English noun that is relatively uncommon and can have more than one historical sense. In contemporary usage, its primary meaning is a person who records the minutes of meetings. In this context, a minutist functions as a minute-taker or secretary, responsible for capturing the discussion, decisions, and action items of a meeting. Typical duties include attending a meeting or listening to proceedings, drafting the minutes, verifying accuracy with participants, circulating a draft, and maintaining a permanent record of attendance, motions, and follow-up tasks. Minutes should be clear, concise, and neutral, focusing on outcomes rather than interpretation or opinion.

A less common sense associates minutist with music, referring to someone connected with minuets, the Baroque dance form. In modern usage this sense is rare, and the more precise term minutist is seldom employed to describe composers or performers of minuets; in practice, the descriptor minuetist or simply musician specializing in minuets is preferred.

Etymology and usage notes: the word minutist is formed from the noun minute (as in a written record of a meeting) plus the agent suffix -ist. A related but more widely used term for the meeting-recording sense is minute-taker or secretary. Because minutist can be ambiguous, it is typically avoided in formal writing in favor of more specific terminology.