minime

Minime is the superlative adverb of parum, the ladder running parum, minus, minime, "too little, less, least". Beside it stands the adjective ladder parvus, minor, minimus, and the two are easy to cross.

The everyday job is not the literal superlative but flat denial. Latin has no bare word for "no", so a question gets answered by echoing the verb or by an adverb, and minime, often reinforced as minime vero or minime gentium, is the standard emphatic refusal: "not a bit of it". Placed in front of an adjective it works the same way, so minime necessarius is not "least necessary" on a scale but "not necessary at all". English minimum, minimal and minimise come from the same root, though they kept the size sense and lost the sarcasm.