Hinayana

Hīnayāna (Chinese: 小乘 Xiǎoshèng; Japanese: Shōjō; Vietnamese: Tiểu thừa) is a Sanskrit and Pali term literally meaning:, "the low vehicle", "the inferior vehicle", or "the miserable vehicle", where "vehicle" (yāna) means "a way of going to enlightenment". It is a polemical term coined by Mahāyāna Buddhists to denigrate their opponents. The term appeared around the 1st or 2nd century CE. Its use in scholarly publications is controversial. There are differing views on the use and meaning of the term, both among scholars and within Buddhism.
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Noun
1. a major school of Buddhism teaching personal salvation through one's own efforts
(hypernym) Buddhism
(member-meronym) Hinayanist
2. an offensive name for Theravada Buddhism
(synonym) Hinayana Buddhism
(hypernym) Theravada, Theravada Buddhism

Hinayana (Sanskrit) Little vehicle; the Theravada school of Southern Buddhism, with its representative in the Buddhism of the North; usually considered the exoteric school in contrast with the Mahayana (great vehicle), the so-called esoteric school. The Hinayana represents what Buddhist mystics have called the eye doctrine, that portion of the Buddha's teaching which is exoteric or for the public, and therefore visible to the eye; while the Mahayana is called the heart doctrine, meaning that portion of the Buddha's teaching which was hid, the secret or heart of the teaching. But there is also a distinctly esoteric side to the Hinayana when it is properly analyzed and understood. See also Theravada 

The term literally means "the Little Way." It is a derogatory term put onto Theravada Buddhism by those who follow Mahayana, which means "the Great Way (or vehicle, or raft)."

n.syn. Theravada)