min·u·et 
(mĭn′y-ĕt)
(mĭn′y-ĕt)n.
1. A slow, stately pattern dance in 3/4 time for groups of couples, originating in 17th-century France.
2. The music for this dance.
3. A movement in 3/4 time that is usually the third, but sometimes the second, of a four-movement symphony or string quartet.
[French menuet, from Old French, small, dainty (from the small steps characteristic of the dance), diminutive of menu, small, from Latin minūtus; see MINUTE2.]