different between celerity vs dispatch

English

Etymology

From Old French celeritee (compare French célérité), from Latin celeritas, from celer (“fast, swift”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??l???ti/
• (US)
• Rhymes: -???ti

Noun

celerity (usually uncountable, plural celerities)

1. Speed, swiftness.
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, act 5, in Measure for Measure:

     O most kind maid, / It was the swift celerity of his death, / Which I did think with slower foot came on, / That brain'd my purpose.
2. (oceanography) The speed of individual waves (as opposed to the speed of groups of waves).
3. (hydrology) The speed with which a perturbation to the flow propagates through the flow domain.
4. (telecommunications, dated) The speed of symbol transmission, now called baud rate.

Related terms

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• despatch (UK, Australia)

Etymology

From Spanish despachar or Italian dispacciare, replacing alternate reflex depeach, which is from French dépêcher. The first known use in writing (in the past tense, spelled as dispached) is by Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall in 1517. This would be unusually early for a borrowing from a Romance language other than French, but Tunstall had studied in Italy and was Commissioner to Spain, so this word may have been borrowed through diplomatic circles. The alternative spelling despatch was introduced in Samuel Johnson's dictionary, probably by accident.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /d??spæt?/
• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /d??spæt?/
• Rhymes: -æt?

Verb

dispatch (third-person singular simple present dispatches, present participle dispatching, simple past and past participle dispatched)

1. (transitive) To send (a shipment) with promptness.
2. (transitive) To send (a person) away hastily.
3. (transitive) To send (an important official message) promptly, by means of a diplomat or military officer.
4. (transitive) To send (a journalist) to a place in order to report.
5. (transitive) To dispose of speedily, as business; to execute quickly; to make a speedy end of; to finish; to perform.
6. (transitive) To rid; to free.
7. (transitive) To destroy quickly and efficiently.
8. (transitive, computing) To pass on for further processing, especially via a dispatch table (often with to).
9. (intransitive, obsolete) To hurry.
10. (transitive, obsolete) To deprive.

Synonyms

• destroy
• kill
• make haste
• send

Hyponyms

Related terms

• dispatch table
• happy dispatch

Translations

Noun

dispatch (countable and uncountable, plural dispatches)

1. A message sent quickly, as a shipment, a prompt settlement of a business, or an important official message sent by a diplomat, or military officer.
2. The act of doing something quickly.

   Synonyms: haste, hurry, rapidity

   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

     During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]
3. A mission by an emergency response service, typically attend to an emergency in the field.
4. (computing) The passing on of a message for further processing, especially via a dispatch table.
5. (obsolete) A dismissal.

Translations

Derived terms

• dispatcher
• dispatch case
• dispatch table