different between bequeath vs commit

English

Etymology

From Middle English bequethen, from Old English becweþan (“to say, to speak to, address, exhort, admonish, blame, bequeath, leave by will”), equivalent to be- +? quethe. Cognate with West Frisian bekwathan.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b??kwi??/, /b??kwi?ð/
• Hyphenation: be?queath
• Rhymes: -i?ð or Rhymes: -i??

Verb

bequeath (third-person singular simple present bequeaths, present participle bequeathing, simple past bequeathed or (obsolete) bequoth, past participle bequeathed or (rare) bequethen or (obsolete) bequothen)

1. (law) To give or leave by will; to give by testament.
2. To hand down; to transmit.
3. To give; to offer; to commit.

Usage notes

• (give or leave by will): The verb bequeath is usually used of personal property; for real property, the term devise is preferred (hence the phrase give, devise, and bequeath).

Related terms

• quethe
• quoth
• bequest

Translations

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin committ? (“to bring together, join, compare, commit (a wrong), incur, give in charge, etc.”), from com- (“together”) + mitt? (“to send”). See mission.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??m?t/
• Rhymes: -?t
• Hyphenation: com?mit

Verb

commit (third-person singular simple present commits, present participle committing, simple past and past participle committed)

1. (transitive) To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.
2. (transitive) To put in charge of a jailer; to imprison.
3. (transitive) To have (a person) enter an establishment, such as a hospital or asylum, as a patient.

4. (transitive) To do (something bad); to perpetrate, as a crime, sin, or fault.
5. To join a contest; to match; followed by with.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dr. H. More to this entry?)

6. (transitive, intransitive) To pledge or bind; to compromise, expose, or endanger by some decisive act or preliminary step. (Traditionally used only reflexively but now also without oneself etc.)
   • 8 March, 1769, Junius, letter to the Duke of Grafton

     You might have satisfied every duty of political friendship, without committing the honour of your sovereign.

   • 1803, John Marshall, The Life of George Washington

     Any sudden assent to the proposal […] might possibly be considered as committing the faith of the United States.

7. (transitive, computing) To make a set of changes permanent.
8. (transitive, obsolete, Latinism) To confound.
9. (obsolete, intransitive) To commit an offence; especially, to fornicate.
10. (obsolete, intransitive) To be committed or perpetrated; to take place; to occur.

Usage notes

To commit, entrust, consign. These words have in common the idea of transferring from oneself to the care and custody of another. Commit is the widest term, and may express only the general idea of delivering into the charge of another; as, to commit a lawsuit to the care of an attorney; or it may have the special sense of entrusting with or without limitations, as to a superior power, or to a careful servant, or of consigning, as to writing or paper, to the flames, or to prison. To entrust denotes the act of committing to the exercise of confidence or trust; as, to entrust a friend with the care of a child, or with a secret. To consign is a more formal act, and regards the thing transferred as placed chiefly or wholly out of one's immediate control; as, to consign a pupil to the charge of his instructor; to consign goods to an agent for sale; to consign a work to the press.

Derived terms

• commit suicide
• commit to memory

Related terms

• commission
• commitment
• committal
• committee
• noncommittal
• mission

Translations

References

Further reading

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

Noun

commit (plural commits)

1. (computing) The act of committing (e.g. a database transaction or source code into a source control repository), making it a permanent change.

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.mi/

Verb

commit

1. third-person singular past historic of commettre