2022-03-12
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – E - extant & extent
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com:
ออกเสียง extant = “EK-stuhnt” or “ik-STANT”
ออกเสียง extent = “ik-STENT”
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions:
extant & extent
Extant (pronounced “EKS-tuhnt” or “ek-STANT” means
“still in existence, not destroy or lost.”
Extent (pronounced “ek-STENT” or “ik-STENT” means
“scope,” “range,” “comprehensiveness.”
“The extent of the land can be determined by extant property lines.”
Dictionary.com:
MORE ABOUT EXTENT
What is extent?
Extent is the length, area, volume, or scope something reaches to,
as in
The extent of Sheree’s knowledge of science fiction was very deep.
Extent is a very common term that can refer to
measurements, concepts, ideals, plans, and many other fields
that measure anything, literal or figurative.
Extent can also refer to something
that has a lengthening, stretching out, or enlarging scope,
especially when the boundaries aren’t known.
You might hear someone talk about the limitless extent of space,
for example.
The phrase the extent of means that
something has reached the extreme or the border of how far it can go,
as in
I can raise your allowance by $5, but that’s the extent of what I can do.
Example:
We know that the pan can get hot, but we are unsure to what extent.
Where does extent come from?
The first records of the term extent come from around 1250.
It ultimately comes from the Latin extendere, meaning “to extend.”
Extent has specific meanings in the law.
In the United States,
an extent is a formal order, or writ,
that allows a creditor to take over a debtor’s lands,
either temporarily or permanently, when the debtor can’t pay the debt.
Collins English Dictionary:
Usage:
Extant is sometimes wrongly used simply to say that something exists,
without any connotation of survival:
plutonium is perhaps the deadliest element in existence
(not the deadliest element extant)
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree:
extant
= still existing; not destroyed:
There is only one extant copy of the book.
Not to be confused with:
extent – range; distance; measure; length; degree:
He is agreeable to some extent.
extinct – no longer in use; no longer existing:
Many animals are now extinct.
Picturesque Expressions: A Thematic Dictionary:
Extent
by a long chalk
By a large amount, by a great degree, by far.
This colloquial British expression derives from the practice of using
chalk marks to keep score in various games.
Thus, a “long chalk” would be a large number of marks or points
—a high score.
The equivalent American expression is
by a long shot and
both are frequently heard in the negative—not by a long chalk or shot.
by a long shot
By a great deal, by far, by a considerable extent.
This U.S. expression was in print as early as the 1870s.
That’s more’n I’d done by a long shot.
(Edward Eggleston, Hoosier Schoolmaster, 1872)
A long shot is a contestant in any competition,
most commonly athletic or political, with little chance of winning;
therefore, with high odds in the betting.
By extension, the phrase has come to refer to
any bet or undertaking having little chance of success
but great potential should the unexpected occur.
Long shot connotes greatness of quantity or quality, if only in potential.
Therefore, by a long shot means
‘by a large amount or degree,’
and the negative not by a long shot
means ‘not at all,’
‘in no way, shape or form,’ or
‘hopelessly out of the question.’
by a long sight
By a considerable amount; a great deal; to a large extent.
Sight in this expression may carry its meaning of ‘range or field of vision,’
and hence, indicate distance.
By further extension,
long sight in this Americanism
refers to great quantity or degree rather than spatial distance.
This expression dates from the early 19th century
and is most frequently heard in the negative.
Other variants are interchangeable with long,
as in the following quotation from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn:
I asked her if she reckoned Tom’sawyer would go there,
and she said not by a considerable sight.
by a nose
By an extremely narrow margin, just barely, by a hair or whisker.
The allusion is to a horse race in which the winner crosses the finish line
only a nose ahead of his rival.
This U.S. slang expression dates from the early part of the 20th century.
Flying Cloud slipped by the pair and won on the post by a nose
in one forty nine! (L. Mitchell, New York Idea, 1908)
higher than Gilderoy’s kite
Very high, higher than a kite, out of sight.
She squandered millions of francs on a navy … and the first time
she took her new toy into action she got it knocked higher
than Gilderoy’s kite—to use the language of the Pilgrims. (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1869)
This chiefly U.S. expression is apparently a truncated version
of hung higher than Gilderoy’s kite ‘
to be punished more severely than the very worst of criminals.’
The allusion is to the hanging of the notorious Scottish highwayman,
Patrick Macgregor, nicknamed Gilderoy,
and five of his gang in Edinburgh in 1636.
According to legal custom at the time,
the greater the crime, the higher the gallows,
and so it was with the gallows of Gilderoy that towered above
those of his companions.
As for the kite in the expression, two explanations have been offered.
One is that Gilderoy was hung so high that he looked like a kite in the sky.
The other, more scholarly, is based on the fact that kite or kyte
meant ‘the stomach, the belly’ in Scottish and by extension was probably
used to denote the whole body.
out of all scotch and notch
Beyond all bounds or limits;
incalculable, immeasurable, unlimited, unbounded.
Rarely heard today, this expression is said to refer to the boundary lines,
or scotches, and the corners, or notches, used in the children’s game of hopscotch.
The pleasure which you have done unto me, is out of all scotch and notch.
(Martin Marprelate, Hay any Work for Cooper, 1589)
room to swing a cat
Plentiful space; ample room; a large area.
This expression has several possible origins,
none of them particularly plausible.
One theory alludes to
the sailors’ pastime of twirling a cat about by the tail,
while another possibility refers to
the former training exercise in which a cat was suspended in a bottle
and shot at for target practice.
Cat was also an old Scottish word for rogue;
thus, the expression may have derived
from the amount of room necessary to hang a wrongdoer.
In any case,
the phrase is often applied negatively
to describe a lack of space or cramped quarters.
June, I am pent up in a frowzy lodging,
where there is not room enough to swing a cat.
(Tobias Smollett, Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1771)
