different between character vs lex

English

Etymology

From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “type, nature, character”), from ??????? (kharáss?, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??(?)kt?/, /?kæ?(?)kt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt?/
• Hyphenation: char?ac?ter

Noun

character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)

1. (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
2. (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.

3. (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.

   • A man of […] thoroughly subservient character

4. (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.

5. (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.

6. (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech

     It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye.

7. (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
8. (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
9. (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
10. (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.

11. (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
12. (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.

13. (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.

    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.

14. (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
15. (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.

Usage notes

Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Pages starting with “character”.

Translations

Verb

character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)

1. (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.

See also

• codepoint
• font
• glyph
• letter
• symbol
• rune
• pictogram

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /k?a?rak.ter/, [k?ä??äkt??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ka?rak.ter/, [k????kt??r]

Noun

character m (genitive charact?ris); third declension

1. branding iron
2. brand (made by a branding iron)
3. characteristic, mark, character, style

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Hungarian: karakter
• Galician: caritel; ? carácter
• Irish: carachtar
• Italian: carattere
• Old French: caractere
  • ? English: character
  • French: caractère
• Polish: charakter
  • ? Russian: ????????? (xarákter)
• Portuguese: caractere, carácter
• Sicilian: caràttiri
• Spanish: carácter

References

• character in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Noun

character m (plural characteres)

1. Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).

English

Etymology

From lexical analysis, from lexical.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /l?ks/
• Rhymes: -?ks
• Homophones: Lex, leks

Verb

lex (third-person singular simple present lexes, present participle lexing, simple past and past participle lexed)

1. (computing) To perform lexical analysis; to convert a character stream to a token stream as a preliminary to parsing.

Derived terms

• lexer

See also

• lex (software) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

lex (plural lexes)

1. (linguistics) A specific inflected form of a word; compare lexeme.

Latin

Etymology

• From Proto-Italic *l?g-, from Proto-Indo-European *le?-s, root nomen actionis from *le?- (“to gather”), whence leg?.
• Or from Proto-Indo-European *leg?-s, root nomen actionis from *leg?- (“to lie, to be in resting position”). Compare with the semantics of English law from this root.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /le?ks/, [??e?ks?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /leks/, [l?ks]

Noun

l?x f (genitive l?gis); third declension

1. a proposition or motion for a law made to the people by a magistrate, a bill
2. (figuratively) a bill which has become a law, a law
   • a. 43 BC, Publilius Syrus, Sententiae (printed in translation Benham's Book of Quotations 1948)

     Lex universa est quae iubet nasci et mori.

     The universal law is that which ordains that we are to be born and to die.

     dura lex, sed lex.

     The law is tough but it is the law.

3. (figuratively) a precept, regulation, principle, rule, mode, manner
4. (figuratively) a contract, agreement, covenant
5. (figuratively) a condition, stipulation

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ?? Albanian: ligj
• Aromanian: leadzi
• Asturian: llei
• Basque: lege
• Esperanto: le?o
• Friulian: leç
• Galician: lei
• Italian: legge
• Ladin: lege
• Old Occitan: ley
  • Occitan: lei
  • Catalan: llei
• Old French: lei
  • Middle French: loy
    • French: loi
      • ? Haitian Creole: lalwa
      • ? Moore: laloa
  • Norman: louai
• Piedmontese: lege
• Portuguese: lei
• Romanian: lege
• Sicilian: liggi
• Spanish: ley
• Venetian: lexe
• Walloon: lwè

See also

References

• lex in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• lex in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lex in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
• lex in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lex in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Middle English

Noun

lex

1. Alternative form of lax (“salmon”)

Wolof

Pronunciation

Noun

lex (definite form lex bi)

1. cheek (part of the face)