Menial
MENIAL, that which belongs to household or domestic service, hence, particularly, a domestic servant. The idea of such service being derogatory has made the term one of contempt. The word is derived from an obsolete meinie or meyney, the company of household servants or retainers; a Scottish form is menzie. The origin is to be found in the O.Fr. mesnie, popular Lat. mansionata, from mansio, mansion, from which comes Fr. maison, house.
MfiNIER, EMILE JUSTIN (1826-1881), French manufacturer and politician, was born at Paris in 1826. In 1853, on the death of his father, Antoine Brutus Menier, he became proprietor of a large drug factory, founded in 1815 by the latter at Saint Denis, Paris, and in 1825 at Noisiel-sur-Marne. Antoine Brutus Menier had also manufactured chocolate in a small way, but Emile Justin from the first devoted himself specially to chocolate. He purchased cocoa-growing estates in Nicaragua and beet-fields in France, erected a sugar-mill, and equipped himself in other ways for the production of chocolate on a large scale. In 1864 he sold his interest in the drug-manufacturing business, and thenceforth confined himself to chocolate, building up an immense trade. Menier was a keen politician, and from 1876 till his death had a seat in the French Chamber, his general views being strongly Republican, while he consistently opposed protection. He was the author of several works on fiscal and economic questions, notably L'lmpdt sur le capital (1872), La Reforme fiscale (1872), Economic rurale (1875), L'Avenir economique (1875-1878), Atlas de la production de la richesse (1878). He died at Noisiel-sur-Marne in 1881, his sons succeeding to the business.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
