different between endeavour vs intention

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?d?v.?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?d?v.?/
• Rhymes: -?v?(?)

Noun

endeavour (plural endeavours)

1. Britain standard spelling of endeavor.
   • 1748, David Hume, in Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), § 9

     The like has been the endeavour of critics, logicians, and even politicians […] .

   • 1873, J C Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, volume 2, page 184:

     As we shall find it necessary, in our endeavours to bring electrical phenomena within the province of dynamics, to have our dynamical ideas in a state fit for direct application to physical questions we shall devote this chapter to an exposition of these dynamical ideas from a physical point of view.

Verb

endeavour (third-person singular simple present endeavours, present participle endeavouring, simple past and past participle endeavoured)

1. Britain standard spelling of endeavor.
   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), § 2:

     The other species of philosophers consider man in the light of a reasonable rather than an active being, and endeavour to form his understanding more than cultivate his manners.

   • November 20, 1777, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Debate in the Lords on the Address of Thanks

     It is our duty […] to endeavour the recovery of these most beneficial subjects.

   • 1669 May 18, Sir Isaac Newton, Letter (to Francis Aston):

     If you be affronted, it is better, in a foreign country, to pass it by in silence, and with a jest, though with some dishonour, than to endeavour revenge; for, in the first case, your credit's ne'er the worse when you return into England, or come into other company that have not heard of the quarrel.

English

Alternative forms

• entention (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French intention, entention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentio, intentionem. Compare intent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?t?n??n/
• Hyphenation: in?ten?tion
• Rhymes: -?n??n
• Homophone: intension

Noun

intention (countable and uncountable, plural intentions)

1. The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
   • a. 1784, attributed to Samuel Johnson

     Hell is paved with good intentions.

   • “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
2. (obsolete) Tension; straining, stretching.
   • , I.iii.3:

     cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].

3. A stretching or bending of the mind toward an object or a purpose (an intent); closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.

   • it is attention : when the mind with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea, considers it on all sides, and will not be called off by the ordinary solicitation of other ideas, it is that we call intention or study

4. (obsolete) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
   • 1732, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Ailments …, Prop. II, p.159:

     In a Word, the most part of chronical Distempers proceed from Laxity of Fibres; in which Case the principal Intention is to restore the Tone of the solid Parts; […].

5. (obsolete) Any mental apprehension of an object.
6. (medicine) The process of the healing of a wound.
   • 2007, Carie Ann Braun, Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health, p.49:

     When healing occurs by primary intention, the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.

Synonyms

• (purpose behind a specific action): See also Thesaurus:intention

Derived terms

• counter-intention
• intentional
• secondary intention
• the road to hell is paved with good intentions
• well-intentioned

Related terms

• intend
• intent
• well-intended

Translations

Verb

intention (third-person singular simple present intentions, present participle intentioning, simple past and past participle intentioned)

1. Intend

Translations

References

• intention at OneLook Dictionary Search
• intention in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Finnish

Noun

intention

1. Genitive singular form of intentio.

French

Etymology

From Middle French entention, from Old French entencion, borrowed from Latin intenti?, intenti?nem. Respelled intention in Middle French to more closely match the Classical Latin form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.t??.sj??/

Noun

intention f (plural intentions)

1. intention

Derived terms

Further reading

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

Middle French

Noun

intention f (plural intentions)

1. Alternative form of entention