miniscule

オバマ大統領の広島訪問にちなみ、彼のプロフィールを調べてみました。

Barack Obama: Life Before the Presidency

Obama's mother, who "to the end of her life [in 1995] would proudly proclaim herself an unreconstructed liberal," deeply admired the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and taught her son, he later wrote, that "To be black was to be the beneficiary of a great inheritance, a special destiny, glorious burdens that only we were strong enough to bear." But, as culturally diverse as Hawaii was, its African American population was miniscule. With no father or other family members to serve as role models (his relationship with his white grandfather was difficult), Obama later reflected, "I was trying to raise myself to be a black man in America, and beyond the given of my appearance, no one around me seemed to know exactly what that meant."

（一部抜粋）

http://millercenter.org/president/biography/obama-life-before-the-presidency

今回取り上げる単語は、minisculeです。「少数」などの意味を想像しました。

『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版、大修館）で調べたところ、”miniscule”は”minuscule”と同じであることが分かりました。”minuscule”を引いてみると、「非常に小さい，ちっぽけな，小文字の」という意味が載っておりました。

またOxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)によると、” extremely small; tiny”とのことでした。

つまり” its African American population was miniscule.”は、「アフリカ系アメリカ人の人口は極めて少なかった（ほとんどいなかった）」などと訳せるかと思います。（Gomez）