3

Context (New York Times),

MINTS An organic fudge brownie awaits you in the room, along with a personalized welcome letter...

First, I'm not sure if I'm on the right track or not (I'm wondering if mints here is a shortening for mint aspects [nice/good aspects].?), but these are what I found on the Internet,

Wiktionary : 4.(slang) Very good.

Urban Dictionary: 1. Nice. 2. Cool

If I'm correct, I would like to know how common this word (mint adj.) is used in American English?

By the way, is this word used in BE as well? Because I also read this,

Urban Dictionary: 2.Expression used in The North Of England meaning good

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
11

I believe that the term "mints" is actually referring to the nice things that hotels do for you. In the past, nice hotels would leave an edible mint on your pillow every night. So, the review uses "mints" to mean the extras provided by the hotel.

Improve this answer
2

In the article, the paragraph heading MINTS refers to two things:

  1. (Symbolic) All the amenities that the hotel provides (mentioned in the paragraph).
  2. (Literal) The actual "mints" that hotels often leave on your pillow when you first arrive.

In this case, the hotel has left an "organic fudge brownie," instead of the traditional piece of mint chocolate candy.

Definition: A mint chocolate or chocolate mint (sometimes called simply "mints" in the plural) is a type of candy that has a mint-flavored filling on the inside, with a chocolate candy shell on the outside.

Example Usage: "Ooh, you have a big bag of mints! Can have have one of those chocolate mints?

Note that the word mint in this usage refers not to the plant/herb, but to any type of candy – soft or hard – that has mint flavoring. A chocolate mint is just a variant of the standard mint candy.

Improve this answer
3
  • What do you mean by "(chocolate candy)"?
    – Matt E. Эллен
    Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 8:57
  • A mint left by a hotel is usually chocolate mint, a chocolate candy that has mint flavoring.
    – thursdaysgeek
    Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 22:33
  • Thanks @thursdaysgeek, I was just writing it up! :) Matt: I added a definition to the answer above.
    – narx
    Commented Aug 9, 2011 at 22:35

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .