two word choices

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>[this is "menial" 'inconsequential, petty', not anything to do with
>>servants or servitude.  perhaps a blending of "minor" with
>>"venial"/"trivial"?  or just a malaprop for "minor" -- a fancy,
>>technical-sounding substitute for it?]
>FWIW, my first thought was that it was a blend with "venial"  (menial
>labor/venial sins, both relating to relative insignificance but along
>different sorts of scales)

Hard to know for sure. My guess is that the writer meant to write "menial",
thinking that it was an appropriate adjective ... possibly taking it as an
exact equivalent of "lowly" in all senses or something like that.

-- Doug Wilson