different between command vs utter

English

Etymology

From Middle English commanden, commaunden, comaunden, comanden, from Old French comander (modern French commander), from Vulgar Latin *commandare, from Latin commendare, from com- + mandare, from mand? (“I order, command”). Compare commend (a doublet), and mandate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k??m??nd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /k??mænd/
• Hyphenation: com?mand

Noun

command (countable and uncountable, plural commands)

1. An order to do something.

   I was given a command to cease shooting.

2. The right or authority to order, control or dispose of; the right to be obeyed or to compel obedience.

   to have command of an army
3. power of control, direction or disposal; mastery.

   he had command of the situation

   England has long held command of the sea

   a good command of language
4. A position of chief authority; a position involving the right or power to order or control.

   General Smith was placed in command.

5. The act of commanding; exercise or authority of influence.
   • 1851, Herbert Spencer, Social Statics, p. 180

     Command cannot be otherwise than savage, for it implies an appeal to force, should force be needful.

6. (military) A body or troops, or any naval or military force, under the control of a particular officer; by extension, any object or body in someone's charge.
7. Dominating situation; range or control or oversight; extent of view or outlook.
8. (computing) A directive to a computer program acting as an interpreter of some kind, in order to perform a specific task.
9. (baseball) The degree of control a pitcher has over his pitches.

   He's got good command tonight.

10. A command performance.
    • 1809, Dorothy Jordan, letter, cited in Claire Tomalin, Mrs Jordan's Profession, Penguin 2012, p. 220:

      Atkinson […] had hinted to me that the Duke of Richmond was so delighted with my acting that he should not be surprised if there was a second command.

Translations

See also

• imperative mood

References

• Command on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

command (third-person singular simple present commands, present participle commanding, simple past and past participle commanded)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To order, give orders; to compel or direct with authority.

   The soldier was commanded to cease firing.

   The king commanded his servant to bring him dinner.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Revenge

     We are commanded to forgive our enemies, but you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To have or exercise supreme power, control or authority over, especially military; to have under direction or control.

   to command an army or a ship
3. (transitive) To require with authority; to demand, order, enjoin.

   he commanded silence

   • 2013, Louise Taylor, English talent gets left behind as Premier League keeps importing (in The Guardian, 20 August 2013)[1]

     The reasons for this growing disconnect are myriad and complex but the situation is exacerbated by the reality that those English players who do smash through our game's "glass ceiling" command radically inflated transfer fees.

4. (transitive) to dominate through ability, resources, position etc.; to overlook.

   Bridges commanded by a fortified house. (Motley.)

5. (transitive) To exact, compel or secure by influence; to deserve, claim.

   A good magistrate commands the respect and affections of the people.

   Justice commands the respect and affections of the people.

   The best goods command the best price.

   This job commands a salary of £30,000.

6. (transitive) To hold, to control the use of.

   The fort commanded the bay.

   • Two wooden bridges led across the river; each was commanded by a fortified house

   • December 1699, Joseph Addison, letter to William Congreve

     One [side] commands a view of the finest garden.

   • 1834, The Hobart Town Magazine (volume 2, page 323)

     […] they made considerable progress in the art of embalming the wild fruits of their native land, so that they might command cranberries and hindberries at all times and seasons.

7. (intransitive, archaic) To have a view, as from a superior position.
8. (obsolete) To direct to come; to bestow.

Synonyms

• (give an order): decree, order

Translations

Derived terms

References

• command in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “command”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??t?/, [??t?]
• (US) IPA^(key): /??t?/, [????]
• Rhymes: -?t?(?)

Etymology 1

From Old English ?tera, comparative of ?t (“out”). Compare outer.

Adjective

utter (not comparable)

1. (now poetic, literary) Outer; furthest out, most remote. [from 10th c.]
2. (obsolete) Outward. [13th–16th c.]
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XXIII:

     Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.10:

     So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came […] .

3. Absolute, unconditional, total, complete. [from 15th c.]

   utter ruin; utter darkness

   • 1708, Francis Atterbury, Fourteen Sermons Preach'd on Several Occasions : Preface

     They […] are utter strangers to all those anxious […] thoughts which […] disquiet mankind.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:total

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Partly from out (adverb, verb), partly from Middle Dutch uteren.

Verb

utter (third-person singular simple present utters, present participle uttering, simple past and past participle uttered)

1. (transitive) To produce (speech or other sounds) with one's voice.

   Synonyms: let out, say, speak

   Don't you utter another word!

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 1.20,^[2]

     Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, London: J. Osborn, Volume 2, Chapter 50, p. 156,^[3]

     […] he made no other reply, for some time, than lifting up his eyes, clasping his hands, and uttering a hollow groan.

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Boston: Roberts Brothers, Volume 1, Chapter 17, p. 263,^[4]

     […] Laurie slyly pulled the parrot’s tail, which caused Polly to utter an astonished croak,
2. (transitive) To reveal or express (an idea, thought, desire, etc.) with speech.

   Synonyms: declare, say, tell

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica, London, p. 35,^[5]

     Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 6, p. 77,^[6]

     […] tho’ a few odd Fellows will utter their own Sentiments in all Places, yet much the greater Part of Mankind have enough of the Courtier to accommodate their Conversation to the Taste and Inclination of their Superiors.

   • 1871, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Volume 4, Part 2, Book 8, Chapter 83, p. 323,^[7]

     Each had been full of thoughts which neither of them could begin to utter.

   • 1959, Muriel Spark, Memento Mori, New York: Time, 1964, Chapter , p. 213,^[8]

     “Your master,” he declared, “has uttered a damnable lie about a dead friend of mine.”

   • 1995, Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Part 11, p. 528,^[9]

     “Don’t worry about me,” he uttered with minimum lip movement.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To produce (a noise) (of an inanimate object).

   Synonyms: emit, let out

   Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To spit or blow (something) out of one's mouth.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, “Rip van Winkle” in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., London: John Murray, 3rd ed., 1820, Volume 1, p. 79,^[10]

     He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco smoke instead of idle speeches;

   • 1821, Charles Lamb, “The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple” in The London Magazine, Volume 4, No. 21, September 1821, p. 280,^[11]

     Four little winged marble boys used to play their virgin fancies, spouting out ever fresh streams from their innocent-wanton lips, in the square of Lincoln’s-inn […] Are the stiff-wigged living figures, that still flitter and chatter about that area, less gothic in appearance? or, is the splutter of their hot rhetoric one half so refreshing and innocent, as the little cool playful streams those exploded cherubs uttered?

5. (transitive, obsolete) To emit or give off (breath).
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV, Scene 2,^[12]

     […] most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath;

   • 1629, William Davenant, The Tragedy of Albovine, King of the Lombards, London: R. Moore, Act I, Scene 1,^[13]

     […] now the King forsakes

     The Campe, he must maintaine luxurious mouthes,

     Such as can vtter perfum’d breath,

6. (transitive, archaic) To shed (a tear or tears).
   • 1615, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Cupid’s Revenge, London: Josias Harrison, Act V, Scene 1,^[14]

     […] weepe now or neuer, thou hast made more sorrowes then we haue eyes to vtter.

   • 1928, Robert Byron, The Station: Travels to the Holy Mountain of Greece, Bloomsbury, 2010, Chapter 6,^[15]

     […] a mythological matron, in a classical helmet, uttering a tear at a rustic cross bound in blue and white ribbons and inscribed TO THE FALLEN—1912,

7. (transitive, obsolete) To offer (something) for sale; to sell.
   • 1577, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed's Chronicles, London: John Hunne, The History of Ireland,^[16]

     […] certayne Merchants […] obteyned licence safely to arriue here in Ireland with their wares, and to vtter the same.

   • c. 1594, Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene 1,^[17]

     Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua’s law

     Is death to any he that utters them.

   • 1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, London: Henry Tomes, Book 2, p. 72,^[18]

     […] at the Olimpian games […] some cam as Merchants to vtter their commodities,

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year, London: E. Nutt et al., p. 51,^[19]

     No infected Stuff [i.e. items made of cloth] to be uttered.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To put (currency) into circulation.

   Synonym: circulate

   • 1564, Proclamation of Elizabeth I of England dated November, 1564, London: Richard Jugge and John Cawood, 1565,^[20]

     […] there are […] forrayne peeces of golde, of the like quantitie and fashion (although of lesse value) lyke to an Englyshe Angell, brought hyther, and here vttered and payde for ten shyllynges of syluer, beyng for they lacke of wayght, and for the basenesse of the allay, not worth. vii. shillinges, to the great deceite and losse of the subiectes of this her Realme:

   • 1735, Jonathan Swift, Drapier’s Letters, Letter 3, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, Dublin: George Faulkner, Volume 4, p. 123,^[21]

     There is nothing remaining to preserve us from Ruin, but that the whole Kingdom should continue in a firm determinate Resolution never to receive or utter this FATAL Coin:

   • 1842, cited in Supplement to The Jurist, containing a Digest of All the Reported Cases […] published during the year 1842, p. 49,^[22]

     If two persons jointly prepare counterfeit coin, and then utter it in different shops, apart from each other, but in concert, and intending to share the proceeds, the utterings of each are the joint utterings of both, and they may be convicted jointly.

9. (transitive, obsolete) To show (something that has been hidden); to reveal the identity of (someone).
   • 1535, Miles Coverdale, Coverdale Bible, Genesis 45.1,^[23]

     […] there stode no man by him, whan Ioseph vttred him self vnto his brethren.

   • 1561, William Whittingham et al. (translators), Geneva Bible, Mark 3.12,^[24]

     And he [Jesus] sharpely rebuked them [the unclean spirits], to the end they shulde not vtter him.

10. (transitive, obsolete) To send or put (something) out.
    • 1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre [and] Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, Henry VI, year 37,^[25]

      As fier beyng enclosed in a strayte place, wil by force vtter his flamme […]

    • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, London: Hugh Singleton, “March,” Aegloga Tertia,^[26]

      Seest not thilke same Hawthorne studde,

      How bragly it beginnes to budde,

      And vtter his tender head?

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse otr, from Proto-Germanic *utraz, from Proto-Indo-European *udrós (“water-animal, otter”), from *wed- (“water”).

Noun

utter c

1. otter; a mammal of the family Mustelidae

Declension