Jesse asks: Why are the notes taken at a meeting called the “minutes”? Was this because the note taker records the notes along with the time?
Not quite. In fact, the “minutes” here have nothing to do with time, but rather “small”, as in “minute” (my-newt). “Minutes” in this sense first popped up in the early 18th century, possibly directly from the Latin “minuta scriptura”, meaning “small notes” or just “minuta”, meaning “small” or possibly via the 16th century “minute” definition of “rough draft” from the preceding Latin.
Whatever the case, “minutes” as in “meeting notes” is referencing this sense of condensing something down (small) as in the “my-newt” (minute) pronunciation, not as in “seconds, minutes, hours”.
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