different between expressive vs express

English

Etymology

From Middle French expressif

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sp??s?v/
• Rhymes: -?s?v
• Hyphenation: ex?pres?sive

Adjective

expressive (comparative more expressive, superlative most expressive)

1. Effectively conveying thought or feeling.

Antonyms

• inexpressive
• unexpressive

Derived terms

• expressiveness

Related terms

• expressivity

Translations

Noun

expressive (plural expressives)

1. (linguistics) Any word or phrase that expresses (that the speaker, writer, or signer has) a certain attitude toward or information about the referent.
   • 2017, Tammi Leann Stout, An investigation of projection and temporal referencein Kaqchikel (dissertation for the University of Texas at Austin):

     Consider the case of expressives, where no prior knowledge of the speaker’s attitudes are required to interpret the utterance. In (43) ["That jerk Alexa keeps making me look bad"], Steve does not need to know (and in fact has no prior knowledge of) anything relating to Siri’s attitudes towards Alexa to interpret that Siri has a negative attitude about Alexa. It is the expressive that jerk that implies the negative attitude.

2. (linguistics, more narrowly) A word or phrase, belonging to a distinct word class or having distinct morphosyntactic properties, with semantic symbolism (for example, an onomatopoeia), variously considered either a synonym, a hypernym or a hyponym of ideophone.
   • 2004, Nicole Kruspe, A Grammar of Semelai (?ISBN), page 396:

     Cross-linguistically 'expressives' are more commonly termed 'ideophones' [...] Expressives are often cited as a distinctive shared feature of the Austroasiatic language family (Diffloth and Zide 1992; Osada 1992 (Mundari); Svantesson 1983 (Kammu)). [...] I do not make a distinction between expressives and ideophones. [...] I distinguish expressives from onomatopoeic forms, although the two probably overlap.

   • 2007, N. J. Enfield, A Grammar of Lao (?ISBN), page 299

     A native metalinguistic term toongl-toojl covers most of these, capturing a range of phenomena associated with alliterative, sound symbolic, and poetic expression. This chapter describes expressive structures under the headings ideophones, onomatopoeia, four-syllable rhyming expressions, echo formation, and interjections.

     12.1 Ideophones

     The term ideophone is roughly equivalent to the term expressive, as well as other terms mimetic and psychomime.

   • 2015, The Munda Languages (Gregory D. S. Anderson, ?ISBN), page 139:

     The term 'expressive' was suggested by Diffloth (1976:263–264) and adopted by Emeneau (1980:7) in the South Asian context in the following:

     ‘(E)xpressive’ is the most inclusive term for a form class with semantic symbolism and distinct morphosyntactic properties; ‘ideophones’ are a subclass in which the symbolism is phonological; ‘onomaptoetics’ are ideophones in which the reference of the symbolism is acoustic (i.e. imitative of sounds). Since the ideophones may have reference not only to sounds, but to any other objects of sense, including internal feelings as well as external perceptions (sight, taste, smell, etc.), and since the Indo-Aryan/Dravidian items already examined have this very wide type of reference, the broadest term ‘expressives’ seems appropriate.

   • 2017, Sam Gray, Classifications of Mundari Expressives and Other Reduplicated Structures (thesis):

     I examine the valency of expressives, a class of ideophones in Mundari, comparing their behaviors as predicates to those of reduplicated verb forms.

Further reading

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

French

Adjective

expressive

1. feminine singular of expressif

German

Adjective

expressive

1. inflection of expressiv:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?k?sp??s/ IPA^(key): /?k.?sp??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Etymology 1

From French exprès, from Latin expressus, past participle of exprimere (see Etymology 2, below).

Adjective

express (comparative more express, superlative most express)

1. (not comparable) Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops.
2. (comparable) Specific or precise; directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied.

   I gave him express instructions not to begin until I arrived, but he ignored me.

   This book cannot be copied without the express permission of the publisher.

3. Truly depicted; exactly resembling.

   In my eyes it bore a livelier image of the spirit, it seemed more express and single, than the imperfect and divided countenance.
4. (postpositive, retail) Providing a more limited but presumably faster service than a full or complete dealer of the same kind or type.

   The Pizza Hut inside Target isn't a full one: it's a Pizza Hut Express.

   Some Wal-Mart stores will include a McDonald's Express.

   The mall's selection of cell phone carriers includes a full AT&T store and a T-Mobile express.

Synonyms

• (of a train): fast, crack
• (directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied): explicit, plain; see also Thesaurus:explicit

Antonyms

• (directly and distinctly stated; not merely implied): implied

Translations

Noun

express (plural expresses)

1. A mode of transportation, often a train, that travels quickly or directly.
2. A service that allows mail or money to be sent rapidly from one destination to another.
3. An express rifle.
   • 1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

     "Give me my express," I said, laying down the Winchester, and he handed it to me cocked.

4. (obsolete) A clear image or representation; an expression; a plain declaration.
   • a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial together with the nature and manner of its power and operation

     the only remanent express of Christ's sacrifice on earth

5. A messenger sent on a special errand; a courier.
6. An express office.
   • 1873, Edward Everett Hale, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

     She charged him […] to ask at the express if anything came up from town.

7. That which is sent by an express messenger or message.

Synonyms

• (of a train): fast train

Antonyms

• (of a train): local, stopper

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French espresser, expresser, from frequentative form of Latin exprimere.

Verb

express (third-person singular simple present expresses, present participle expressing, simple past and past participle expressed)

2. (transitive) To convey or communicate; to make known or explicit.

3. (transitive) To press, squeeze out (especially said of milk).
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, chapter 13

     The people of his island of Rokovoko, it seems, at their wedding feasts express the fragrant water of young cocoanuts into a large stained calabash like a punchbowl [...].

   • 2018, Kelsey Munroe, The Guardian, 15 March:

     They don’t have teats, so the mothers express their milk onto their bellies for their young to feed.

4. (biochemistry) To translate messenger RNA into protein.
5. (biochemistry) To transcribe deoxyribonucleic acid into messenger RNA.
   • 2015, Ferris Jabr, How Humans Ended Up With Freakishly Huge Brains, Wired:

     When a cell “expresses” a gene, it translates the DNA first into a signature messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence and subsequently into a chain of amino acids that forms a protein.

Synonyms

• outspeak, utter

Derived terms

• expressed
• expressedly
• express oneself

Related terms

• expressible
• expressibly
• expression
• expressive
• expressively
• expressly

Translations

Noun

express (plural expresses)

1. (obsolete) The action of conveying some idea using words or actions; communication, expression.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20:

     Whereby they discoursed in silence, and were intuitively understood from the theory of their expresses.

2. (obsolete) A specific statement or instruction.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:

     This Gentleman [...] caused a man to go down no less than a hundred fathom, with express to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it groweth.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English express, from Old French expres, from Latin expressus

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.sp??s/
• Homophone: expresse

Adjective

express (invariable)

1. express, rapide

Derived terms

Noun

express m (plural express)

1. express train or service