different between battle vs contention

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?bæt?l/, [?bat???]
• (US) enPR: b?t'l, IPA^(key): /?bætl?/, [?bæ???], [bæt??]
• Rhymes: -æt?l
• Hyphenation: bat?tle

Etymology 1

From Middle English batel, batell, batelle, batayle, bataylle, borrowed from Old French bataille, from Late Latin batt?lia, variant of battu?lia (“fighting and fencing exercises”) from Latin battu? (“to strike, hit, beat, fight”), from a Gaulish root from Proto-Indo-European *b?ed?- (“to stab, dig”). Doublet of battalia and battel.

Displaced native Old English ?efeoht.

Alternative forms

• batail, battel, battell (14th–17th centuries)

Noun

battle (plural battles)

1. A contest, a struggle.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Ecclesiastes, 9:11:
2. (military) A general action, fight, or encounter, in which all the divisions of an army are or may be engaged; a combat, an engagement.
3. (military, now rare) A division of an army; a battalion.
4. (military, obsolete) The main body of an army, as distinct from the vanguard and rear; the battalia.

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• battlement

Translations

Verb

battle (third-person singular simple present battles, present participle battling, simple past and past participle battled)

1. (intransitive) To join in battle; to contend in fight

   Scientists always battle over theories.

   She has been battling against cancer for years.

2. (transitive) To fight or struggle; to enter into a battle with.

   She has been battling cancer for years.

Derived terms

• battle it out

Related terms

• embattle

Translations

Etymology 2

From Early Modern English batell, probably from Middle English *batel (“flourishing”), from Old English *batol (“improving, tending to be good”), from batian (“to get better, improve”) + -ol ( +? -le).

Alternative forms

• battil, battill, battel, baittle, bettle, batwell

Adjective

battle (comparative more battle, superlative most battle)

1. (Britain dialectal, chiefly Scotland, Northern England, agriculture) Improving; nutritious; fattening.

   battle grass, battle pasture

2. (Britain dialectal, chiefly Scotland, Northern England) Fertile; fruitful.

   battle soil, battle land

Derived terms

• overbattle

Verb

battle (third-person singular simple present battles, present participle battling, simple past and past participle battled)

1. (transitive, Britain dialectal, chiefly Scotland, Northern England) To nourish; feed.
2. (transitive, Britain dialectal, chiefly Scotland, Northern England) To render (for example soil) fertile or fruitful

Related terms

• batful
• batten

Further reading

• battle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• battle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “battle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• batlet, battel, tablet

English

Etymology

From Middle English contencion, borrowed from Old French contencion, from Latin contentio, contentionem, from contend? (past participle contentus); see contend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?t?n??n/
• Hyphenation: con?ten?tion

Noun

contention (countable and uncountable, plural contentions)

1. Argument, contest, debate, strife, struggle.
2. A point maintained in an argument, or a line of argument taken in its support; the subject matter of discussion of strife; a position taken or contended for.

   It is my contention that state lotteries are taxes on stupid people.

3. (computing, telecommunications) Competition by parts of a system or its users for a limited resource.

Synonyms

• gainstrife, gainstriving, wrangling

Hyponyms

• (computing) resource contention

Derived terms

• bone of contention
• contention system
• in contention
• resource contention

Related terms

Translations

References

• contention on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

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

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin contentio, contentionem. Cf. the inherited form contençon, and see also tençon.

Noun

contention f (oblique plural contentions, nominative singular contention, nominative plural contentions)

1. dispute; quarrel; disagreement

Related terms

• contendre
• contençon
• tençon

Descendants

• English: contention
• French: contention