different between appointment vs billet

English

Etymology

From Middle French apointement (French appointement). See appoint.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??p??nt.m?nt/
• (Southern American English) IPA^(key): /??p??nt.m?nt/, [??p????n?m?n?], [??p??????m?n?]

Noun

appointment (plural appointments)

1. The act of appointing a person to hold an office or to have a position of trust

2. The state of being appointed to a service or office; an office to which one is appointed

3. Stipulation; agreement; the act of fixing by mutual agreement.
4. An arrangement between people to meet; an engagement.

5. (religion) Decree; direction; established order or constitution.
6. (law) The exercise of the power of designating (under a power of appointment) a person to enjoy an estate or other specific property; also, the instrument by which the designation is made.
7. (government) The assignment of a person by an official to perform a duty, such as a presidential appointment of a judge to a court.
8. (in the plural) Equipment, furniture.
9. (US) A honorary part or exercise, as an oration, etc., at a public exhibition of a college.

10. (obsolete) The allowance paid to a public officer.

Synonyms

• command
• designation
• direction
• equipment
• establishment
• order

Antonyms

• (act of appointing): dismissal

Translations

References

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

See also

• calendar
• meeting
• schedule

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /?b?l?t/
• Rhymes: -?l?t

Etymology 1

From Middle English bylet, from Anglo-Norman billette (“list, schedule”), from bille +? -ette, from Latin bulla (“document”).

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. A short informal letter.
2. A written order to quarter soldiers.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle French billette (“schedule”), from bullette, diminutive form of bulle (“document”), from Medieval Latin bulla, hence cognate with etymology 1 above.

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. A place where a soldier is assigned to lodge.
   • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 9 (Totem Books, Icon Books; ?ISBN

     17 June 1940: Prime Minister Pétain requests armistice. Germans use the Foucaults’ holiday home as officers’ billet. Foucault steals firewood for school from collaborationist militia. Foucault does well at school, but messes up his summer exams in 1940.

2. An allocated space or berth in a boat or ship.
3. (figuratively) Berth; position.
   • 1897, Pall Mall Magazine

     His shafts of satire fly straight to their billet, and there they rankle.

Verb

billet (third-person singular simple present billets, present participle billeting or billetting, simple past and past participle billeted or billetted)

1. (transitive, of a householder etc.) To lodge soldiers, or guests, usually by order.

   • Billeted in so antiquated a mansion.
2. (intransitive, of a soldier) To lodge, or be quartered, in a private house.
3. (transitive) To direct, by a ticket or note, where to lodge.

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English billet, bylet, belet, billette, from Old French billette, from bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“tree”)).

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. (metallurgy) A semi-finished length of metal.
2. A short piece of wood, especially one used as firewood.
3. A short cutting of sugar cane produced by a harvester or used for planting.
4. (heraldry) A rectangle used as a charge on an escutcheon.
5. (architecture) An ornament in Norman work, resembling a billet of wood, either square or round.
6. (saddlery) A strap that enters a buckle.
7. A loop that receives the end of a buckled strap.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

billet (plural billets)

1. Alternative form of billard (“coalfish”)

Anagrams

• LIBlet, Litbel

Danish

Etymology

From French billet.

Noun

billet c (singular definite billetten, plural indefinite billetter)

1. ticket (admission to entertainment, pass for transportation)

Inflection

Further reading

• “billet” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

From Old French billette, from Latin bulla. See French boulette.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.j?/

Noun

billet m (plural billets)

1. ticket
2. note, a brief message
3. (short for billet de banque) banknote

Derived terms

• distributeur de billets

Related terms

• billet de banque (bank note)
• billet-doux
• billette
• billetterie
• billetiste

Descendants

Further reading

• “billet” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).