mineur

Mineur is a French term with several related senses. As an adjective, it means minor or lesser, especially in the sense of age or status. It is used for individuals who have not reached the age of majority, with the exact threshold varying by jurisdiction. In legal language one may encounter phrases such as mineur non émancipé (unemancipated minor) and mineur émancipé for a minor who has achieved some form of emancipation. As a noun, mineur designates a miner, a person who works in a mine; the feminine form is mineure.

In music, mineur designates minor tonality, the opposite of majeur. It is used to describe minor keys and scales and appears in discussions of harmony and melody in French-language music theory and analysis. The term covers the natural, harmonic, and melodic minor varieties found in Western tonal music.

Etymologically, mineur derives from the Latin minor, meaning smaller or lesser, reflecting its usage related to lesser age or degree. In French, the word shares its core sense with related terms such as majeur (major) and peut être found in various legal, cultural, and academic contexts where distinctions of age, status, or tonal quality matter.