the.com/mince
meat reduced to its democratic atoms, where cut and quality vanish into glorious anonymity.
means To chop food (especially meat) into very small pieces, or to walk and speak with affected, dainty delicacy; also, to soften or downplay one's words.
from From Old French 'mincier,' to cut into small bits, which traces back to Latin 'minutia' — smallness, tininess — a cousin of 'minute' and 'minor.' The same root that shrinks the meat also shrinks the gait: 'to mince' your steps is to take small, careful ones, and 'to mince words' is to dole out speech in cautious little portions rather than serving it whole.
- word origin
- From Latin minutia, meaning small things.
- food safety
- Cook fully; bacteria spreads through every ground gram.
- double meaning
- To mince also means walking with tiny affected steps.
- mince pies
- Originally contained actual meat, not just fruit.
scottish mince and tatties — traditional scottish dish of ground beef served with mashed potatoes, eaten across scotland for centuries
mince pies — small baked pastries filled with spiced dried fruit, traditionally eaten at christmas in the uk since the 14th century