different between adamant vs importunate

English

Alternative forms

• adamaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English adamant, adamaunt, from Latin adamantem, accusative singular form of adam?s (“hard as steel”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (adámas, “invincible”), from ?- (a-, “not”) + ?????? (damáz?, “I tame”) or of Semitic origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ.d?.m?nt/, /?æ.d?.mænt/

Adjective

adamant (comparative more adamant, superlative most adamant)

1. (said of people and their conviction) Firm; unshakeable; unyielding; determined.
2. (of an object) Very difficult to break, pierce, or cut.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:obstinate

Translations

References

• adamant at OneLook Dictionary Search

Noun

adamant (plural adamants)

1. An imaginary rock or mineral of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness.
2. An embodiment of impregnable hardness.
   • 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, XV [Uniform ed., p. 163]:

     Actual life might seem to her so real that she could not detect the union of shadow and adamant that men call poetry.

3. (obsolete) A lodestone.
   • 1594–96, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream:

     You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant:

     But yet you draw not iron, for all my heart

     Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,

     And I shall have no power to follow you.

Translations

Derived terms

References

• adamant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Cornish

Etymology

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?adamant/

Noun

adamant m (plural adamantow)

1. The mineral, diamond
2. A gemstone made from diamond.

Irish

Noun

adamant f (genitive singular adamainte, nominative plural adamaintí)

1. Alternative form of adhmaint (“adamant, lodestone; magnet”)

Declension

Mutation

Further reading

• "adamant" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Latin

Verb

adamant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of adam?

Middle English

Alternative forms

• athamaunt, adamaunt, adamawnte, adamaunde, ademand

Etymology

From Latin adamantem, accusative of adam?s, from Ancient Greek ?????? (adámas). Compare adamas.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ad?mant/, /?ad?mau?nt/

Noun

adamant (plural adamants)

1. adamant, adamantine (valuable gemstone)
2. An invulnerable or indomitable object
3. A natural magnet; magnetite.

Related terms

• adamantine

Descendants

• English: adamant
• Scots: adamant (obsolete)

References

• “adama(u)nt, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-11.

English

Etymology 1

From Latin importune +? -ate

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?p??tj?n?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?p??t???n?t/

Adjective

importunate (comparative more importunate, superlative most importunate)

1. (of a demand) Persistent or pressing, often annoyingly so.
   • 1890, Henry James, The Tragic Muse:

     Nick was on the point of declaring again that he was a humbug, so vivid was his inner sense of what he thought of his factitious public utterances, which had the cursed property of creating dreadful responsibilities and importunate credulities for him.

2. (of a person) Given to importunate demands, greedily or thoughtlessly demanding.

Related terms

• importune

Translations

Etymology 2

From French importuner (“to bother, disturb”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?p??tju?ne?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?p??tju?ne?t/

Verb

importunate (third-person singular simple present importunates, present participle importunating, simple past and past participle importunated)

1. (rare) To importune, or to obtain by importunity.
   • 1581 June 23, Thomas Churchyard, letter to Sir Christopher Hatton, in Sir Harris Nicolas (editor), Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton, K.G., Richard Bentley (publisher, 1847), page 173:

     All which notwithstanding, I obtained licence at length to make my supplication to the noble Parliament house; but I could find no messengers till Sir John Seton went, whom I importunated daily to obtain me favor for my return home again.

   • 1847 December 18, N. Roussel, “Spiritual Destitution of Paris.—Appeal to British Christians”, in Evangelical Christendom: Its State and Prospects, Volume II (1848), Partridge and Oakey, page 43:

     Is my work ended? The fear of importunating my friends answers, “Yes.”

   • 1910 July, David Leslie Brown, “The Need of To-day”, in Sunset, Volume 25, Southern Pacific Company, reverse of frontispiece:

     It is the concrete that impresses, that importunates until it influences—in writing as in everything else.

Translations

Anagrams

• permutation, premutation

Italian

Verb

importunate

1. second-person plural present indicative of importunare
2. second-person plural imperative of importunare
3. feminine plural of importunato