minimis, minimus = 'minimum,' 'minimal'

[Victor Steinbok]

My European Law prof was a Brit who's lived in Belgium and the
Netherlands for over 25 years and spoke fluent Dutch. He used to be a
top European lawyer. He pronounced it with a clean schwa, but AFAIK
always spelled it with an "i".

     VS-)

On 9/28/2011 9:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> Conceivably Graham said "to the de minimus," or even "to de minimis," but it
> still effectively meant "to the minimum."
>
> That's not to say he can't use the phrase correctly in other contexts.
>
> As for pronunciation, both Graham and Bloomberg used a shwa, or so it
> sounded to me. Hence the spelling "minimus."  OED doesn't note the shwa even
> as a US variation.
>
> Also, the putatively (though not definitively) hasty identification of all
> three as Republicans   (and only Rogers's party affiliation is open to
> question) is justified by the opportunity presented to use "confudiation."
>
> JL

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