different between article vs phenomenon

English

Etymology

From Middle English article, from Old French article, from Latin articulus (“a joint, limb, member, part, division, the article in grammar, a point of time”), from Latin artus, from Proto-Indo-European *h?értus (“that which is fit together; juncture, ordering”), from the root *h?er- (“to join, fit (together)”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???t?k?l/, [???t??k???]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???t?k?l/, /???t?kl?/, [??(?)???k?]
• Rhymes: -??(?)t?k?l

Noun

article (plural articles)

1. A piece of nonfictional writing such as a story, report, opinion piece, or entry in a newspaper, magazine, journal, dictionary, encyclopedia, etc.
2. An object, a member of a group or class.

3. (grammar) A part of speech that indicates, specifies and limits a noun (a, an, or the in English). In some languages the article may appear as an ending (e.g. definite article in Swedish) or there may be none (e.g. Russian, Pashto).
4. A section of a legal document, bylaws, etc. or, in the plural, the entire document seen as a collection of these.

5. A genuine article.
6. A part or segment of something joined to other parts, or, in combination, forming a structured set.
   • 1785, William Paley, Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy

     upon each article of human duty

   • 1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia

     the different articles which compose the blood

7. (derogatory, dated) A person; an individual.

   a shrewd article
8. (archaic) A wench.

9. (dated) Subject matter; concern.

   • a very great revolution that happened in this article of good breeding

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year

     This last article perhaps will hardly be believed.

10. (dated) A distinct part.
11. (obsolete) A precise point in time; a moment.
    • 1683, John Evelyn, Diary, 13 July 1683.

      This fatal news coming to Hick's Hall upon the article of my Lord Russell's trial, was said to have had no little influence on the jury and all the bench to his prejudice.

    • 1805, Charles Hall, The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States, Original Preface:

      […] who has more opportunities of acquiring the knowledge, than a physician? He is admitted into the dwellings of all ranks of people, and into the innermost parts of them; he sees them by their fireside, at their tables, and in their beds; he sees them at work, and at their recreations; he sees them in health, in sickness, and in the article of death; […]

    • 1634, William Habington, Castara

      each article of time

Derived terms

Related terms

• articulate
• articulation

Translations

Verb

article (third-person singular simple present articles, present participle articling, simple past and past participle articled)

1. (transitive) To bind by articles of apprenticeship.

   to article an apprentice to a mechanic

   • 1876, Sabine Baring-Gould, The Vicar of Morwenstow, Chapter LIV

     When the boy left school at Liskeard, he was articled to a lawyer, Mr. Jacobson, at Plymouth, a wealthy man in good practice, first cousin to his mother; but this sort of profession did not at all approve itself to Robert's taste, and he only remained with Mr. Jacobson a few months.

2. (obsolete) To accuse or charge by an exhibition of articles or accusations.
   • 1665, Samuel Pepys, Diary, March 1665

     At noon dined alone with Sir W. Batten, where great discourse of Sir W. Pen, Sir W. Batten being, I perceive, quite out of love with him, thinking him too great and too high, and began to talk that the world do question his courage, upon which I told him plainly I have been told that he was articled against for it, and that Sir H. Vane was his great friend therein.

   • 1793, Manning of the Navy Act (Statutes of George III 33 c. 66) ¶VIII[2]:

     […] if the Captain of any Merchant ship under convoy shall wilfully disobey Signals […] he shall be liable to be articled against in the High Court of Admiralty […]

3. To formulate in articles; to set forth in distinct particulars.
   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     If […] all his errors and follies were articled against him, the man would seem vicious and miserable.

Derived terms

• articled clerk

Further reading

• article in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• article in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• clairet, lacerti, recital

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin articulus. Compare the inherited doublet artell.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /???ti.kl?/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?r?ti.kl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /a??ti.kle/

Noun

article m (plural articles)

1. article (a piece of nonfictional writing)
2. (grammar) article

Derived terms

• article determinat
• article definit

Further reading

• “article” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “article” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “article” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “article” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

From Old French article, borrowed from Latin articulus. Compare the inherited doublet orteil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?.tikl/

Noun

article m (plural articles)

1. article (a piece of nonfictional writing)
2. (grammar) article
3. merchandise, sales article
4. section (of a law)
5. (dated) joint, articulation
6. moment (only in the phrase à l'article de la mort)

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

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

Occitan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin articulus.

Pronunciation

Noun

article m (plural articles)

1. article (a piece of nonfictional writing)

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin articulus.

Noun

article m (oblique plural articles, nominative singular articles, nominative plural article)

1. (anatomy) joint; articulation
2. (religion) article (of faith)
3. article (clause in a legal document or treaty)

Usage notes

• Occasionally used as a feminine noun

Descendants

• French: article

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (article, supplement)
• article on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

English

Alternative forms

• phaenomenon, phænomenon (archaic)
• phainomenon (archaic, academic, or technical)
• phœnomenon (hypercorrect, obsolete)

Etymology

From Late Latin phaenomenon (“appearance”), from Ancient Greek ?????????? (phainómenon, “thing appearing to view”), neuter present middle participle of ????? (phaín?, “I show”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /f??n?m?n?n/, /f??n?m?n?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /f??n?m?n?n/, /f??n?m?n?n/

Noun

phenomenon (plural phenomena or (nonstandard) phenomenons or phenomenon)

1. A thing or being, event or process, perceptible through senses; or a fact or occurrence thereof.
   • 1900, Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, ch. 1:

     The Indians, making a hasty inference from a trivial phenomenon, arrived unawares at a probably correct conclusion.

   • 2007, "Ask the Experts: Hurricanes," USA Today, 7 Nov. (retrieved 16 Jan. 2009):

     Hurricanes are a meteorological phenomenon.

2. (by extension) A knowable thing or event (eg by inference, especially in science)

3. A kind or type of phenomenon (sense 1 or 2)

4. Appearance; a perceptible aspect of something that is mutable.
   • 1662, Thomas Salusbury (translator), Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World, First Day:

     I verily believe that in the Moon there are no rains, for if Clouds should gather in any part thereof, as they do about the Earth, they would thereupon hide from our sight some of those things, which we with the Telescope behold in the Moon, and in a word, would some way or other change its Phœnomenon.

5. A fact or event considered very unusual, curious, or astonishing by those who witness it.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary—Volume I, ch. 18:

     The phenomenon of a huge blazing fire, upon the opposite bank of the glen, again presented itself to the eye of the watchman. . . . He resolved to examine more nearly the object of his wonder.

6. A wonderful or very remarkable person or thing.
   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. 23:

     "This, sir," said Mr Vincent Crummles, bringing the maiden forward, "this is the infant phenomenon—Miss Ninetta Crummles."

   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, "The Phantom Rickshaw":

     But, all the same, you're a phenomenon, and as queer a phenomenon as you are a blackguard.

7. (philosophy, chiefly Kantian idealism) An experienced object whose constitution reflects the order and conceptual structure imposed upon it by the human mind (especially by the powers of perception and understanding).
   • 1900, S. Tolver Preston, "Comparison of Some Views of Spencer and Kant," Mind, vol. 9, no. 34, p. 234:

     Every "phenomenon" must be, at any rate, partly subjective or dependent on the subject.

   • 1912, Roy Wood Sellars, "Is There a Cognitive Relation?" The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods, vol. 9, no. 9, p. 232:

     The Kantian phenomenon is the real as we are compelled to think it.

Usage notes

• The universal, common, modern spelling of this term is phenomenon. Of the alternative forms listed above, phaenomenon, phænomenon, and phainomenon are etymologically consistent, retaining the ?? diphthong from its Ancient Greek etymon ?????????? (phainómenon); in the case of the first two, it is in the Romanised form of the Latin ae diphthong, whereas in the latter it is a direct transcription of the original Ancient Greek. The form spelt with œ has no etymological basis. All those alternative forms are pronounced identically with phenomenon and are archaic, except for phainomenon, which sees some technical use in academia and is pronounced with an initial f? ([fa?],).
• By far the most common and universally accepted plural form is the classical phenomena; the Anglicised phenomenons is also sometimes used. The plural form phenomena is frequently used in the singular, and the singular form is sometimes used in the plural. Arising from this nonstandard use, the double plurals phenomenas and phenomenae, as well as a form employing the greengrocer’s apostrophe — phenomena’s — are also seen.

Synonyms

• (observable fact or occurrence): event
• (unusual, curious, or astonishing fact or event): marvel, miracle, oddity, wonder, legend
• (wonderful person or thing): marvel, miracle, phenom, prodigy, wonder, legend

Antonyms

• (philosophy: experienced object structured by the mind): noumenon, thing-in-itself

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• phenomenon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• phenomenon in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.