two word choices

[sagehen]

>>>[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
~~~~~~~~
"Minimal" & "measly" come to mind, though "measly" probably not quite the
right tone.
AM