different between attention vs sideshow

English

Etymology

From Middle English attencioun, borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionis, from attendere, past participle attentus (“to attend, give heed to”); see attend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?n.??n/

Noun

attention (countable and uncountable, plural attentions)

1. (uncountable) Mental focus.
2. (countable) An action or remark expressing concern for or interest in someone or something, especially romantic interest.
   • 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, ch. 3,

     She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper.

   • 1910, Stephen Leacock, "How to Avoid Getting Married," in Literary Lapses,

     For some time past I have been the recipient of very marked attentions from a young lady.

3. (uncountable, military) A state of alertness in the standing position.

4. (uncountable, computing) A technique in neural networks that mimics cognitive attention, enhancing the important parts of the input data while giving less priority to the rest.

Synonyms

• (mental focus): heed, notice; see also Thesaurus:attention

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Interjection

attention

1. (military) Used as a command to bring soldiers to the attention position.
2. A call for people to be quiet/stop doing what they are presently doing and pay heed to what they are to be told or shown.

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Antonetti, tentation

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.t??.sj??/

Noun

attention f (uncountable)

1. attention, (mental focus)
2. vigilance
3. attention (concern for or interest in)
4. consideration, thoughtfulness

Derived terms

• faire attention
• prêter attention

Related terms

• attendre
• attentif

Interjection

attention !

1. look out! watch out! careful!

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• tentation

English

Alternative forms

• side show

Etymology

From side +? show.

Noun

sideshow (plural sideshows)

1. a minor attraction at a larger event such as a circus, fair, music festival or similar
   • 1999 November 8, Frank Hayes, The Back Page: The main event, Computerworld, page 86,

     And IT people dismiss IT?s impact because, hey, we like being a sideshow to the real action.

   • 1999, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book, Australia, Number 81, page 349,

     Other recreation services, including amusement parks or arcades, sideshows, circuses and agricultural shows, accounted for another 666 businesses. These businesses employed 10,318 persons and a further 3,518 volunteers.

   • 2002, Steve Evans, Ron Middlebrook, Cowboy Guitars, page 146,

     In Australia he busked (singing on street corners), steeplejacked, was a drover and sheep shearer, did motor bike stunts in sideshows and even painted the Sydney Harbor^[sic] Bridge.

   • 2005, Joe Nickell, Secrets of the Sideshows, page 126,

     They taught the twins to play saxophone and transferred them from the sideshow to vaudeville.

   • 2006, Lynda Mannik, Canadian Indian Cowboys in Australia: Representation, Rodeo, and the RCMP at the Royal Easter Show, 1939, page 13,

     Entertainment features and sideshows enhanced attendance.

   • 2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 63,

     Don?t miss the rusty relics dredged up from the original pier, and the spooky old sideshow machines.

   • 1972 October 14, Henry Johnston, U.S. Tune Wins Rio Festival, Billboard, page 64,

     Sideshows for foreign guests included one provided by Philips manager Andre Midani with his chief recording artists including Chico Buarque, Jorge Ben, Gal Costa Quintato, and Violado.

2. an incidental spectacle that diverts attention from a larger concern
   • 1997, Frank Stilwell, One Nation For Whom?, Michael Costa, Mark Hearn (editors), Reforming Australia's Unions: Insights from Southland Magazine, page 244,

     Far from learning from the failures of ‘economic rationalism,’ the Liberals want us to swallow more of the snake oil medicine while diverting our attention to the consumption tax sideshow.

3. (US) an incident in which drivers block traffic to perform stunts like donuts and burnouts for an extended period of time
   • 2021 January, Kim McLane Wardlaw writing for the Ninth Circuit in Villanueva v. Cleveland[1]:

Antonyms

• main attraction

Derived terms

• sideshow alley (Australia)