2020-12-02
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด P – precipitate & precipitous
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง precipitate – Verb = ‘pri-SIP-i-teyt”
and adj. & noun = ‘pri-SIP-i-tit’
ออกเสียง precipitous = ‘pri-SIP-i-tuhs’
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
Precipitous =
extremely steep; abrupt, sheer: a precipitous slope
Not to be confused with:
precipitant – falling headlong;
rushing hastily onward;
unduly sudden: precipitant decision
precipitate – hasten the occurrence of;
to cast, plunge, orsend violently; accelerate: precipitate a fight
Dictionary.com
ORIGIN OF PRECIPITATE
First recorded in 1520–30; the verb and adjective derive from Latin praecipitātus
(past participle of praecipitāre “to cast down headlong”),
equivalent to praecipit- (stem of praeceps “steep”;
see precipice) + -ātus past participle suffix (see -ate1);
the noun comes from New Latin praecipitātum
“a precipitate,” noun use of neuter of praecipitātus
Dictionary.com
HISTORICAL USAGE OF PRECIPITATE
The verb precipitate comes from Latin praecipitāt-,
the past participle stem of praecipitāre
“to fall headlong, leap down, hurl or throw down, throw overboard,”
a derivative of the adjective praeceps (stem praecipit- )
“falling headlong, impetuous (in action), advanced in age, declining,
abrupt, sudden.”
Praeceps is formed from the adverb, preposition,
and prefix prae, prae- “in front, ahead” and -ceps (stem -cepit- ),
a combining form of caput (stem capit- ) “head”;
praeceps literally means “headfirst.”
The chemical sense of precipitate,
“to separate (a substance) in solid form from a solution,”
first appears in New Latin praecipitāre at the end of the 15th century,
and is first recorded in English in the 17th century.
The related meteorological sense
“to fall to earth as rain, snow, hail, or drizzle”
dates from the end of the 18th century.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for precipitate
Adjective
PRECIPITATE, HEADLONG, ABRUPT, IMPETUOUS, SUDDEN
mean showing undue haste or unexpectedness.
PRECIPITATE stresses lack of due deliberation and implies prematureness of action.
the army's precipitate withdrawal
HEADLONG stresses rashness and lack of forethought.
a headlong flight from arrest
ABRUPT stresses curtness and a lack of warning or ceremony. an abrupt refusal
IMPETUOUS stresses extreme impatience or impulsiveness.
an impetuous lover proposing marriage
SUDDEN stresses unexpectedness and sharpness or violence of action.
flew into a sudden rage
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
precipitate
Did You Know?
Adjective
Many people, including usage commentators,
are insistent about keeping the adjectives"precipitate" and "precipitous" distinct
"Precipitate" they say, means "headlong" or "impetuous";
"precipitous" means only "steep."
And, indeed, "precipitate" is used mostly in the "headlong" sense,
whereas "precipitous" usually means "steep."
But one shouldn't be too hasty about insisting on the distinction.
The truth is that "precipitate" and "precipitous" have had a tendency to overlap
for centuries. Lexicographer Samuel Johnson, in his dictionary of 1755,
defined "precipitate" as"steeply falling," "headlong," and "hasty,"
while "precipitous" was "headlong; steep," and "hasty."
Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary included much the same definitions.
The words' etymologies overlap as well.
Both ultimately come from Latin praeceps, which means "headlong."
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Word History
'Precipitous' Does Not Mean "Rainy"
Some words on the precipice
Sometimes, several words from one language that share a single root
are adopted into English more or less at the same time
—that is, when it rains, it pours words.
Those derived from the Latin praeceps (pronounced \PRYE-keps\) are a good example.
Praeceps has many uses.
As an adjective it means “rushing forward, headlong,” “sudden,” or “steep.”
As a noun: “a sheer drop or descent.” As an adverb: “headlong.”
As a verb, the related word praecipitare (\prye-kip-ih-TAH-ray\)
means “to fall suddenly.”
Precipitous, precipitation, precipice,and precipitate
are all English words that derive from this root.
'Precipitation' and 'precipitous': same root, different words.
The close connection between headlong and praeceps is no accident:
the literal meaning of the Latin praeceps is “headfirst,”
as it is formed from the Latin prae-, meaning “in front of” or “before”
—the ancestor of pre- in English—and caput, meaning “head.”
The twin ideas expressed by words derived from praeceps are “rushed” and “steep.”
The oldest of these English words, precipitation,
originally meant “haste” and “the act of hurling or casting down”
—it had no connection to water falling from the sky for another two centuries or more. In the 1500s its “haste” meaning was frequently used:
Therefore let vs take hede to procede by ripe deliberation, fearing least we repent us to much by leasure of our foolish precipitation and hastinesse.
— Thomas Paynell, The Treasurie of Amadis of Fraunce, 1572
Shakespeare used precipitation’s other early meaning,
“the act of hurling or casting down,”
with reference to a Roman form of execution by
throwing someone from a cliff known asTarpeian Rock:
Even from this instant, banish him our city, In peril of precipitation From off the rock Tarpeian never more To enter our Rome gates
— William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 3
The corresponding verb precipitate (pronounced \prih-SIP-uh-tayt\)
is used today to mean “to bring about especially abruptly”
(“falling demand precipitated an industry crisis”),
but its original meaning “to cast or hurl down, as from a precipice or height”
was used in the same violent contexts as Shakespeare’s precipitation:
Him from that height shall Heaven precipitate By violent and ignominious death
— William Wordsworth, Sonnet XXI
Precipitate is also a noun (“a substance separated from a solution”)
and adjective (“steep” or “fast,” as in “a precipitate decline”).
It's usually pronounced \prih-SIP-uh-tut\ in these uses.
These uses followed the verb into the language and are distinguished from it by pronunciation, but retain the ideas of“falling” shared with precipitation and “steep” shared with its other praeceps cousins.
Precipice first meant “a sudden or headlong fall,” a meaning now obsolete in English.
Its literal meaning, “a sheer cliff,” wasquickly followed by its figurative sense,
“a point where danger, trouble, or difficulty begins”
as in “He is on the precipice of a midlife crisis.”
Precipitous means “very steep” and also has a clear figurative use
(“a precipitous drop in prices”).
Precipitancy and its synonym precipitance mean
“undue hastiness or suddenness”
and were used more often in political contexts circa 1800 than they are today:
But the power in question has a further use. It not only serves as a shield to the Executive, but it furnishes an additional security against the enaction of improper laws. It establishes a salutary check upon the legislative body, calculated to guard the community against the effects of faction, precipitancy, or of any impulse unfriendly to the public good, which may happen to influence a majority of that body.
— Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist No. 73, 1788
Precipitation is by far the most frequently used of these words today,
yet in Webster’s dictionary of 1828 there is no definition corresponding to the modern “hail, mist, rain, sleet, or snow.”
The use of the word in this contextseems to have come from the scientists
who were observing weather in the late 1600s and were familiar with the idea of precipitation in chemical contexts.
After all, “removing liquid particles from a smoke or gas,”
that is, forming a precipitate (“a substance separated from a solution”)
is the most basic definition of rain.
All of these words based on praeceps entered English over a period of about a century starting around 1500
—a reflection of the both the beginnings ofmodern science
and the interest in Classical languages and cultureduring the Renaissance.
And though these words hurried into English with senses connected to “haste” and “steepness,” the use of precipitation to mean “rain” was added to the language much later, and doesn’t apply to the word’s etymological cousins:
although it’s tempting to use precipitous to mean “rainy,”
we caution you not to dive headfirst into it.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for precipitous
STEEP, ABRUPT, PRECIPITOUS, SHEER
mean having an incline approaching the perpendicular.
STEEP implies such sharpness of pitch that ascent or descent is very difficult.
a steep hill a steep dive
ABRUPT implies a sharper pitch and a sudden break in the level.
a beach with an abrupt drop-off
PRECIPITOUS applies to an incline approaching the vertical.
the river winds through a precipitous gorge
SHEER suggests an unbroken perpendicular expanse.
sheer cliffs that daunted the climbers
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
precipitate & precipitous
Both of these adjectives are based on the image of
plunging over the brink of a precipice,
but “precipitate” emphasizes the suddenness of the plunge,
“precipitous,” the steepness of it.
If you make a “precipitate” decision, you are making a hasty and probably unwise one.
If the stock market declines “precipitously,” it goes down sharply
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group
Precipitate = An insoluble substance formed by a chemical reaction.
Farlex Trivia Dictionary
precipitate
precipitation - Precipitate is from Latin praecipitare,
"to throw or drive headlong";
precipitation first meant the action of falling or throwing down.
See also related terms for throwing.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
pre·cip′i·tate·ly (-tĭt-lē) adv.
pre·cip′i·tate·ness n.
pre·cip′i·ta′tive adj.
pre·cip′i·ta′tor n.
Usage Note:
The adjective precipitate and the adverb precipitately
were once applied to physical steepness
but are now used primarily of rash, headlong actions:
Their precipitate entry into the foreign markets led to disaster.
He withdrew precipitately from the race.
Precipitous currently means "steep" in both literal and figurative senses:
the precipitous rapids of the upper river; a precipitous drop in commodity prices.
But precipitous and precipitously are also frequently
used to mean "abrupt, hasty,"
which takes them into territory that would ordinarily belong to
precipitate and precipitately:
their precipitous decision to leave.
Many people object to this usage out of a desireto keep
precipitate and precipitous distinct,
but the extension of meaning from "steep" to "abrupt" is perfectly natural.
After all
a precipitous increase in reports of measles is also an abrupt or sudden event.
In fact, a majority of the Usage Panel now accepts this usage.
In our 2004 survey, 65 percent accepted the sentence
Pressure to marry may cause precipitous decision-making that is not grounded in the reality of who you are and what you want from life.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
precipitate & precipitous
With a common origin in Latin terms meaning “to cast down,”
these words have taken on dissimilar meaning.
As an adjective, precipitate means “headlong,” “moving rapidly and hastily,” “rash”:
“Take your time; don’t make a precipitate decision.”
“Braking too hard will cause a precipitate stop.”
Precipitous means “steep,” “abrupt,” “perpendicular,” “sheer”
and is usually applied to mountains, cliffs, and all steep places:
“Some of the streets of San Francisco seem almost precipitous.”
“That precipitous cliff is nearly 1,000 feet high.”
