different between commence vs erect

English

Etymology

From Middle English commencen, comencen (also as contracted comsen, cumsen), from Anglo-Norman comencer, cumencer, comencier, from Vulgar Latin *cominiti?, *cominiti?re, formed from Latin com- + initi? (see initiate).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??m?ns/
• Rhymes: -?ns

Verb

commence (third-person singular simple present commences, present participle commencing, simple past and past participle commenced)

1. (intransitive) To begin, start.
   • 1601, William Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle,^[1]

     Here the anthem doth commence:

   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village” in The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, London: W. Griffin, 1775, p. 164,^[2]

     His heaven commences ere the world be past!

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 4,^[3]

     He commenced dressing at top by donning his beaver hat, a very tall one, by the by, and then—still minus his trowsers—he hunted up his boots.
2. (transitive) To begin to be, or to act as.
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 126,^[4]

     […] he furnish’d me with a Gun, Cartouch-box, and Powder-horn, &c. and thus accouter’d I commenc’d Soldier.

   • 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character, London: Taylor & Hessey, Prudential Aphorisms, Aphorism 15, p. 48,^[5]

     When we are wearied of the trouble of prosecuting crimes at the bar, we commence judges ourselves […]

3. (Britain, intransitive, dated) To take a degree at a university.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, London: John Williams, The Seventh Century, p. 75,^[6]

     […] I question whether the Formality of Commencing was used in that Age: inclining rather to the negative, that such Distinction of Graduates was then unknown […]

   • 1861, George John Gray, Athenae Cantabrigienses: 1586-1609 (page 272)

     […] was admitted a minor fellow of his college 4 Oct. 1591, a major fellow 11 March 1591-2, and commenced M.A. in 1592.

Antonyms

• cease
• stop

Related terms

• commencement
• initiate

Translations

French

Pronunciation

Verb

commence

1. first-person singular present indicative of commencer
2. third-person singular present indicative of commencer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of commencer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of commencer
5. second-person singular imperative of commencer

Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French commencer (“to commence”), compare Haitian Creole kòmanse.

Verb

commence

1. to begin, commence

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt
• Hyphenation: erect

Etymology 1

From Middle English erect, a borrowing from Latin ?rectus (“upright”), past participle of ?rig? (“raise, set up”), from ?- (“out”) + reg? (“to direct, keep straight, guide”).

Adjective

erect (comparative more erect, superlative most erect)

1. Upright; vertical or reaching broadly upwards.
   • 1789, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 6, chapter 64.

     Among the Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect — a column in a scene of ruins.

2. (of body parts) Rigid, firm; standing out perpendicularly, especially as the result of stimulation.

   Synonyms: hard, stiff

3. (of a man) Having an erect penis

   Synonyms: hard, stiff

4. (obsolete) Bold; confident; free from depression; undismayed.
   • 1827, John Keble, The Christian Year

     But who is he, by years / Bowed, but erect in heart?

5. (obsolete) Directed upward; raised; uplifted.
6. Watchful; alert.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     vigilant and erect attention of mind

7. (heraldry) Elevated, as the tips of wings, heads of serpents, etc.

Antonyms

• (rigid; standing out perpendicularly): flaccid

Derived terms

• erectable
• semierect

Related terms

• erectile
• erection
• erigible

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English erecten, from the adjective (see above).

Verb

erect (third-person singular simple present erects, present participle erecting, simple past and past participle erected)

1. (transitive) To put up by the fitting together of materials or parts.

2. (transitive) To cause to stand up or out.
3. To raise and place in an upright or perpendicular position; to set upright; to raise.
   1. (aviation, of a gyroscopic attitude indicator) To spin up and align to vertical.

4. To lift up; to elevate; to exalt; to magnify.

   • that didst his state above his hopes erect

   • , Preface

     I, who am a party, am not to erect myself into a judge.

5. To animate; to encourage; to cheer.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, Of Contentment (sermon)

     It raiseth the dropping spirit, erecting it to a loving complaisance.

6. (astrology) To cast or draw up (a figure of the heavens, horoscope etc.).
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 332:

     In 1581 Parliament made it a statutory felony to erect figures, cast nativities, or calculate by prophecy how long the Queen would live or who would succeed her.

7. To set up as an assertion or consequence from premises, etc.

   • from fallacious foundations, and misapprehended mediums, erecting conclusions no way inferrible from their premises

   • Malebranche erects this proposition.

8. To set up or establish; to found; to form; to institute.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     to erect a new commonwealth

   • 1812, Arthur Collins & Sir Egerton Brydges, Peerage of England, F.C. and J. Rivington et al, page 330:

     In 1686, he was appointed one of the Commissioners in the new ecclesiastical commission erected by King James, and was proud of that honour.

Synonyms

• build

Derived terms

• erecting shop
• re-erect, reerect

Translations

Anagrams

• -crete, Crete, recte, terce