different between distinctive vs appropriate

English

Etymology

From Latin distinctus, perfect passive participle of distinguere (“to push apart, to divide”), + -ive (forming adjectives signifying relation or tendency to). Cognate with French distinctif and Medieval Latin distinctivus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??st??kt?v/

Adjective

distinctive (comparative more distinctive, superlative most distinctive)

1. Distinguishing, used to or enabling the distinguishing of some thing.
   • 1583, Philip Stubbes, The Anatomie of Abuses, Fol. V:

     Our Apparell was giuen vs as a signe distinctiue to discern betwixt sex and sex.

   a product in distinctive packaging

2. (rare) Discriminating, discerning, having the ability to distinguish between things.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Vol. II, Ch. iii, p. 75:

     ...more judicious and distinctive heads...

3. Characteristic, typical.
   • 1856, John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol. III, p. 293:

     Wordsworth's distinctive work was a war with pomp and pretence, and a display of the majesty of simple feelings and humble hearts.

   his distinctive bass voice

4. (rare) Distinguished, being distinct in character or position.
   • 1867, Samuel Smiles, The Huguenots, Ch. xvii, p. 432:

     The refugees... at length ceased to exist as a distinctive body among the people.

5. (Hebrew grammar, of accents) Used to separate clauses in place of stops.
   • 1874, Andrew Bruce Davidson, Introductory Hebrew Grammar, p. 27:

     These are the main distinctive accents, and by stopping at them... the reader will do justice to the sense.

6. (linguistics, of sounds) Distinguishing a particular sense of word.
   • 1927, L. Bloomfield & al., Language, No. 3, p. 129:

     Normally we symbolize only phonemes (distinctive features) so far as we can determine them.

Derived terms

• distinctive feature

Related terms

Translations

Noun

distinctive (plural distinctives)

1. A distinctive thing: a quality or property permitting distinguishing; a characteristic.
   • 1816, Maurice Keatinge, Travels through France and Spain to Morocco, Vol. I, p. 189:

     ...the red umbrella, the distinctive of royalty here...

2. (Hebrew grammar) A distinctive accent.
   • 1874, Andrew Bruce Davidson, Introductory Hebrew Grammar, p. 27:

     A distinctive of less power than Zakeph is ?iph?â.

3. (theology) A distinctive belief, tenet, or dogma of a denomination or sect.
   • 1979, Theron F. Schlabach, "Gospel versus Gospel" in Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, p. 154:

     Mennonites could go forth somewhat detached from the chauvinism of Western culture—but not so from the Mennonite distinctives.

References

• “distinctive”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1896
• distinctive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• distinctive in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dis.t??k.tiv/
• Homophone: distinctives

Adjective

distinctive

1. feminine singular of distinctif

English

Etymology

From Middle English appropriaten, borrowed from Latin appropriatus, past participle of approprio (“to make one's own”), from ad (“to”) + proprio (“to make one's own”), from proprius (“one's own, private”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ?pr?'pri?t, ?pr?'pri?t, IPA^(key): /??p???.p?i?.?t/, /??p???.p?i?.?t/
• (US) enPR: ?pr?'pri?t, ?pr?'pri?t, IPA^(key): /??p?o?.p?i.?t/, /??p?o?.p?i.?t/

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??p???.p?i?.e?t/
• (US) enPR: ?pr?'pri?t, IPA^(key): /??p?o?.p?i.e?t/

Adjective

appropriate (comparative more appropriate, superlative most appropriate)

1. Suitable or fit; proper.
   • 1798-1801, Beilby Porteus, Lecture XI delivered in the Parish Church of St. James, Westminster

     in its strict and appropriate meaning

   • 1710, Edward Stillingfleet, Several Conferences Between a Romish Priest, a Fanatick Chaplain, and a Divine of the Church of England Concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome

     appropriate acts of divine worship
2. Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.
3. (obsolete) Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.

Synonyms

• (suited for): apt, felicitous, fitting, suitable; see also Thesaurus:suitable

Antonyms

• (all senses): inappropriate

Derived terms

• appropriateness

Related terms

• proper
• property

Translations

Verb

appropriate (third-person singular simple present appropriates, present participle appropriating, simple past and past participle appropriated)

1. (transitive, archaic) To make suitable to; to suit.
   • 1790, Helen Maria Williams, Julia, Routledge 2016, p. 67:

     Under the towers were a number of gloomy subterraneous apartments with vaulted roofs, the use of which imagination was left to guess, and could only appropriate to punishment and horror.

   • 1802, William Paley, Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity

     Were we to take a portion of the skin, and contemplate its exquisite sensibility, so finely appropriated […] we should have no occasion to draw our argument, for the twentieth time, from the structure of the eye or the ear.

2. (transitive) To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
3. (transitive) To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.
   • 2012, The Washington Post, David Nakamura and Tom Hamburger, "Put armed police in every school, NRA urges"

     “I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation,” LaPierre said.

4. (transitive, Britain, ecclesiastical, law) To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Blackstone to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (to take to oneself): help oneself, impropriate; see also Thesaurus:take or Thesaurus:steal
• (to set apart for): allocate, earmark; see also Thesaurus:set apart

Translations

Further reading

• appropriate at OneLook Dictionary Search
• appropriate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Adjective

appropriate f pl

1. feminine plural of appropriato