different between distress vs privation

English

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English distressen, from Old French destrecier (“to restrain, constrain, put in straits, afflict, distress”); compare French détresse. Ultimately from Medieval Latin as if *districtiare, an assumed frequentative form of Latin distringere (“to pull asunder, stretch out”), from dis- (“apart”) + stringere (“to draw tight, strain”).

The noun is from Middle English distresse, from Old French destrece, ultimately also from Latin distringere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??st??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

distress (countable and uncountable, plural distresses)

1. (Cause of) discomfort.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
2. Serious danger.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:distress.
3. (medicine) An aversive state of stress to which a person cannot fully adapt.
4. (law) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
5. (law) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.

   • If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.

   • The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.

Derived terms

• distress signal

Antonyms

• (maladaptive stress): eustress

Related terms

• distrain
• district

Translations

Verb

distress (third-person singular simple present distresses, present participle distressing, simple past and past participle distressed)

1. To cause strain or anxiety to someone.

   Synonyms: anguish, harrow, trouble, vex, torment, tantalize, tantalise, martyr
2. (law) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.

   Synonym: distrain
3. To treat a new object to give it an appearance of age.

   Synonyms: age, antique, patinate

Translations

Further reading

• distress in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• distress in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• distress at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• disserts

English

Etymology

From Old French privacion, from Latin pr?v?ti?; compare French privation. See private.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /p?a??ve???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

privation (countable and uncountable, plural privations)

1. (philosophy) The state of being deprived of or lacking an attribute formerly or properly possessed; the loss or absence of such an attribute.
2. The state of being very poor, and lacking the basic necessities of life.
3. The act of depriving someone of such basic necessities; deprivation.
4. (obsolete) Degradation or suspension from an office.

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “privation”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

French

Etymology

From Latin pr?v?ti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?i.va.sj??/

Noun

privation f (plural privations)

1. deprivation
2. shortage, deficiency
3. defect

Related terms

• priver

Further reading

• “privation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).