Mill Street. From a mill that stood hereabouts when the scene was one of peaceful rusticity.
Milton Street. After the author of “Paradise Lost,” who resided here for a time, and was buried in the parish church of St Giles’s, Cripplegate. This was the famous Grub Street of tradition.
Milwaukee. Indian for “rich land.”
Mincing Lane. A corruption of “Mynchen Lane,” denoting the property of the Minchery, the Saxon term for a nunnery of St Helen’s in Bishopsgate Street.
Minden Boys. The 20th Foot, so called from the conspicuous bravery displayed by them at the battle of Minden.
Mind your P’s and Q’s. This had reference originally to the pints and quarts chalked up against a rustic at the village alehouse. When his score threatened to become too disproportionate to his prospective wages, the alehouse-keeper generally administered a timely warning in these set terms. It was a polite way of saying he would very soon decline to serve him with more until the next settling day.
Miniature. So called because this early species of hand-painted portraiture originated in the head of the Madonna or of a saint that formed the initial letter of the beautifully illuminated rubrics produced by the monks styled the “Miniatori,” because their paints were made out of minium, or red lead.
Minnesingers. Expresses the Old German for “love singers,” the troubadours of the Fatherland in the Middle Ages.
Minnesota. Indian for “smoky water.”
Minorca. Expresses the lesser of the “Balearic Islands.”