different between figment vs conceit

English

Etymology

From Late Latin figmentum (“anything made, a fiction”), from fing? (“make, form, feign”); see fiction, feign.

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /?f??.m?nt/
• (US)
• (General Australian)

Noun

figment (plural figments)

1. A fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious.
   • 1989 (Sep 30), R. McNeill Alexander, "Biomechanics in the days before Newton", New Scientist volume 123, No. 1684, page 59

     He had not seen sarcomeres: these segments were a figment of his imagination.

Usage notes

• Often used in the form "a figment of one's imagination".

Related terms

• feign
• fiction
• fictional
• fictitious

Translations

References

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

English

Alternative forms

• conceipt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English conceyte, formed from conceyven by analogy with pairs such as (Modern English) deceive~deceit, receive~receipt etc. Doublet of concept and concetto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?si?t/
• Rhymes: -i?t

Noun

conceit (countable and uncountable, plural conceits)

1. (obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought. [14th–18th c.]
   • 1611, King James Version, Proverbs 26:12

     a man wise in his own conceit
2. The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
   • c. 1590, Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

     How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.

3. Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
4. (obsolete) Opinion, (neutral) judgment. [14th–18th c.]
5. (now rare, dialectal) Esteem, favourable opinion. [from 15th c.]
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 345:

     [G]ive him thy thanks for putting her into conceit with the sex that thou hast given her so much reason to execrate.

6. (countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim. [from 16th c.]
   • 1679, John Dryden, The Essay on Satire

     Tasso […] is full of conceits […] which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature.

   • 2012, Lauren Elkin, Scott Esposito, The End of Oulipo?: An attempt to exhaust a movement

     The book's main conceit is to make poetry from univocal words (words containing just one vowel) […]

8. (countable, rhetoric, literature) An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device. [from 16th c.]

   Coordinate terms: metaphor, simile, concetto
9. (uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris. [from 17th c.]
   • 1826, Nathaniel Cotton, Fables

     Plum'd with conceit he calls aloud.

10. Design; pattern.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

conceit (third-person singular simple present conceits, present participle conceiting, simple past and past participle conceited)

1. (obsolete) To form an idea; to think.
   • 1643: John Milton, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce

     Those whose […] vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To conceive.

   • The strong, by conceiting themselves weak, are therebly rendered as inactive […] as if they really were so.

   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.23:

     That owls and ravens are ominous appearers, and presignifying unlucky events, as Christians yet conceit, was also an augurial conception.

Further reading

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

Middle English

Noun

conceit

1. Alternative form of conceyte