different between figure vs presence

English

Etymology

From Middle English figure, borrowed from Old French figure, from Latin fig?ra (“form, shape, form of a word, a figure of speech, Late Latin a sketch, drawing”), from fing? (“to form, shape, mold, fashion”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?ey??- (“to mold, shape, form, knead”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ?????? (teîkhos), Sanskrit ?????? (degdhi), Old English d?g (“dough”). More at dough. Doublet of figura.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??j?/, /?f???/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f???/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?f???/, /?f??j?/
• Rhymes: -???(?), -??j?(?)
• Hyphenation: fig?ure

Noun

figure (plural figures)

1. A drawing or diagram conveying information.
2. The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modelling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body.

   a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble
3. A person or thing representing a certain consciousness.
4. The appearance or impression made by the conduct or career of a person.

   He cut a sorry figure standing there in the rain.

   • I made some figure there.

   • 1770, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

     gentlemen of the best figure in the county

5. (obsolete) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendour; show.
   • 1729, William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

     that he may live in figure and indulgence

6. A human figure, which dress or corset must fit to; the shape of a human body.
7. A numeral.
8. A number, an amount.
9. A shape.
10. A visible pattern as in wood or cloth.

    The muslin was of a pretty figure.

11. Any complex dance move^W.
12. A figure of speech.
13. (logic) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.
14. (astrology) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.

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

15. (music) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.
    • 1888, George Grove, Beethoven's Nine Symphonies: Analytical Essays

      Here, Beethoven limits the syncopations and modifications of rhythm which are so prominent in the first and third movements, and employs a rapid, busy, and most melodious figure in the Violins, which is irresistible in its gay and brilliant effect […]

16. (music) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a motif; a florid embellishment.

Derived terms

Related terms

• figurine
• figurative
• figuratively

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ????? (figyua)

Translations

Verb

figure (third-person singular simple present figures, present participle figuring, simple past and past participle figured)

1. (chiefly US) To calculate, to solve a mathematical problem.
2. (chiefly US) To come to understand.

3. To think, to assume, to suppose, to reckon.
4. (chiefly US, intransitive) To be reasonable.

5. (intransitive) To enter into; to be a part of.
6. (obsolete) To represent by a figure, as to form or mould; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape.
7. To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.
8. (obsolete) To indicate by numerals.
   • 1698 , John Dryden, Epitaph of Mary Frampton

     As through a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.

9. To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.
10. (obsolete) To prefigure; to foreshow.
11. (music) To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.
12. (music) To embellish.

Derived terms

• go figure
• prefigure
• figure on
• figure out (US)

Translations

Further reading

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

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fig?ra.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi.?y?/

Noun

figure f (plural figures)

1. face
2. figure

Synonyms

• visage

Derived terms

Further reading

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

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ure

Noun

figure f

1. plural of figura

Portuguese

Verb

figure

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of figurar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of figurar
3. third-person singular negative imperative of figurar
4. third-person singular imperative of figurar

Spanish

Verb

figure

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of figurar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of figurar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of figurar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of figurar.

English

Alternative forms

• præsence (archaic)

Etymology

Through Old French presence, from Latin praesentia (“a being present”), from praesentem. Displaced native Old English andweardnes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??z?ns/
• Hyphenation: pres?ence

Noun

presence (countable and uncountable, plural presences)

1. The fact or condition of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.

2. The part of space within one's immediate vicinity.

3. A quality of poise and effectiveness that enables a performer to achieve a close relationship with their audience.
4. A quality that sets an individual out from others; a quality that makes them noticed and/or admired even if they are not speaking or performing.

5. Something (as a spirit) felt or believed to be present.

6. A company's business activity in a particular market. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. (archaic) An assembly of great persons.
8. The state of being closely focused on the here and now, not distracted by irrelevant thoughts. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
9. (audio) Synonym of room tone

Antonyms

• absence

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

presence (third-person singular simple present presences, present participle presencing, simple past and past participle presenced)

1. (philosophy, transitive, intransitive) To make or become present.
   • 1985, David Edward Shaner, The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism: A Phenomenological Study of K?kai and D?gen, page 59,

     Within a completely neutral horizon, the primordial continuous stream of experience is presenced without interruption. As this time, the past and future have no meaning apart from the now in which they are presenced.

   • 1998, H. Peter Steeves, Founding Community: A Phenomenological-Ethical Inquiry, page 59,

     Just as the bread and butter can be presenced as more than just the bread and the butter, so baking a loaf of bread can be more than just the baking, the baker, and the bread.

   • 2005, James Phillips, Heidegger's Volk: Between National Socialism and Poetry, Stanford University Press, ?ISBN (paperback), page 118,

     From the overtaxing of the regime's paranoiac classifications and monitoring of the social field, Heidegger was to await in vain the presencing of that which is present, the revelation of the Being of beings in its precedence to governmental control.

Related terms

• present
• presentation
• omnipresence

Further reading

• presence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “presence”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• presence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.