The United States will hold a presidential election in November of 2020. From now until then, you are likely to hear or read many reports about the things U.S. politicians say. Sometimes, the reports or politicians' statements will have words that carry a somewhat different meaning than what you might think.

One example is minority.** It is a noun, but sometimes people use it like an adjective, as in the term minority groups.

This seemingly simple word will be the subject of our report today.

History and change over time

The word minority has a long history. The Google Ngrams search engine shows it first appeared in the English language somewhere around the year 1510.

Google N-Gram showing use of Minority from 1500 - 2008

The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that minority comes from the Middle French word minorité. By the 1530s, the English term meant "state or condition of being smaller." But it does not really carry that meaning anymore.

**There are two main pronunciations of minority. They are: maɪˈnɔːrəti and məˈnorəti

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