What is "mina"

mina \mi"na\, n.; pl. L. Min[ae], E. Minas. [L., fr. Gr. ?.] An ancient weight or denomination of money, of varying value. The Attic mina was valued at a hundred drachmas.

talking starling of India, see mynah.

Etymology 1 n. The myna bird. Etymology 2

n. 1 (context historical English) A monetary unit of ancient Greece and the Middle East, originally equivalent to the weight of a mina of silver. (From 15th C.) 2 (context historical English) A unit of weight of varying value used in the ancient Middle East, especially Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Egypt; also an ancient Greek measure of weight equivalent to 1/60th of a talent. (From 16th C.)

1. n. tropical Asian starlings [syn: myna, mynah, minah, myna bird, mynah bird]

2. [also: minae (pl)]

Minà may refer to:

• Francisco Minà Palumbo
• Gianni Minà

Anna Maria Quaini or Mina Mazzini OMRI (born 25 March 1940), known as Mina, is one of the most successful Italian singers of all time. She was a staple of Italian television variety shows and a dominant figure in Italian pop music from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, known for her three-octave vocal range, the agility of her soprano voice, and her image as an emancipated woman.

In performance, Mina combined several modern styles with traditional Italian melodies and swing music, which made her the most versatile pop singer in Italian music. Mina dominated the Italian charts for fifteen years and reached an unsurpassed level of popularity. She has scored 79 albums and 71 singles on the Italian charts.

Mina's TV appearances in 1959 were the first for a female rock and roll singer in Italy. Her loud syncopated singing earned her the nickname Queen of Screamers. The public also labeled her the Tiger of Cremona for her wild gestures and body shakes. When she turned to light pop tunes, Mina's chart-toppers in West Germany in 1962 and Japan in 1964 earned her the title of the best international artist in these countries. Mina's more refined sensual manner was introduced in 1960 with Gino Paoli's ballad " This World We Love In", which charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961.

Mina was banned from Italian TV and radio in 1963 because her pregnancy and relationship with a married actor did not accord with the dominant Catholic and bourgeois morals. After the ban, the Italian broadcasting service RAI tried to continue to prohibit her songs, which were forthright in dealing with subjects such as religion, smoking and sex. Mina's cool act combined sex appeal with public smoking, dyed blonde hair, and shaved eyebrows to create a "bad girl" image.

Mina's voice has distinctive timbre and great power. Her main themes are anguished love stories performed in high dramatic tones. The singer combined classic Italian pop with elements of blues, R&B and soul music during the late 1960s, especially when she worked in collaboration with the singer-songwriter Lucio Battisti. Top Italian songwriters created material with large vocal ranges and unusual chord progressions to showcase her singing skills, particularly "Brava" by Bruno Canfora (1965) and the pseudo- serial "Se telefonando" by Ennio Morricone (1966). The latter song was covered by several performers abroad. Shirley Bassey carried Mina's ballad " Grande grande grande" to charts in the U.S., U.K., and other English-speaking countries in 1973. Mina's easy listening duet " Parole parole" was turned into a worldwide hit by Dalida and Alain Delon in 1974. Mina gave up public appearances in 1978 but has continued to release popular albums on a yearly basis to the present day.

Mina is a South Korean television series that aired on KBS2 in 2001.

The Mina drum (Tambor Mina) is the largest of the drums that have origins in the Barlovento, Miranda region of Venezuela. They are used during the celebrations of St. John the Baptist and the Midsummer. It is a specialized form of the Cumaco drum. Its origins have been traced to the Mina civilization, which occupied what is now Benin in Africa.

Mina is an album by Italian singer Mina released in 1971.

The album is one of the singer's most successful, yiedlding the hit singles "Amor Mio" and " Grande grande grande" and outselling every other album release in 1972.

Mina is a surname.

People bearing the name include:

• Ara Mina, Filipina actress
• Denise Mina, Scottish crime writer
• Francisco Espoz y Mina, Spanish general, uncle of Francisco Javier Mina
• Francisco Javier Mina, Spanish soldier who fought in the Peninsular War and the Mexican War of Independence

Mina is a given name with a variety of origins, used as a feminine name in some cultures and a masculine name in others. In English-speaking countries, these names may be variously shortened sometimes as Mimi, Mimosa, and Mims.

Mina (born 4 October 1993) is a German pop musician who became famous because of a video at the online portal Myvideo which was watched by four million viewers.

is a Japanese voice actress from Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Mina is a portmanteau of her real name, . She is affiliated with Production Ace.

The Mina was a well-organized African-American community sharing a common language in Louisiana.

The community arose following their importation as slaves into Louisiana following 1782.

The mina (also mna, Greek μνᾶ) is an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight, which was divided into 60 (50) shekels. The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency. In ancient Greece, it originally equalled 70 drachmae and later was increased to 100 drachmae. The Greek word mna was borrowed from Semitic; compare Hebrew māneh, Aramaic mĕnē, Syriac manyā, Ugaritic mn, and Akkadian manū.

In folk language used by sailors, the word mina or mines came to mean "mines", indicating mineral resources extracted from the ground.

From earliest Sumerian times, a mina was a unit of weight. At first, talents and shekels had not yet been introduced. By the time of Ur-Nammu, the mina had a value of 1/60 talents as well as 60 shekels. The value of the mina is calculated at 1.25 pounds or 0.571 kilograms per mina (18.358 troy ounces).

Evidence from Ugarit indicates that a mina was equivalent to fifty shekels. The prophet Ezekiel refers to a mina ('maneh' in the King James Version) as sixty shekels. Jesus of Nazareth tells the " parable of the minas" in Luke 19:11-27.

From the Akkadian period, 2 mina was equal to 1 sila of water (cf. clepsydra, water clock).

Minas is title given to Baba Prithi Chand, elder sons of Guru Ram Das; and his followers. Mina emerged as major sect which ran in parallel to 6th Sikh Guru and had their own Guru lineage unto 3 successions after Guru Arjan Dev. The sect was excommunicated from mainstream Sikh community.