different between help vs prompt

For help with Wiktionary, see Help:Contents.

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: h?lp, IPA^(key): /h?lp/
• Rhymes: -?lp

Etymology 1

From Middle English help, from Old English help (“help, aid, assistance, relief”), from Proto-Germanic *help? (“help”), *hilpiz, *hulpiz, from Proto-Indo-European *?elb-, *?elp- (“to help”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälpe (“help”), West Frisian help (“help”), Dutch hulp (“help”), Low German Hülp (“help”), German Hilfe (“help, aid, assistance”), Danish hjælp (“help”), Swedish hjälp (“help”), Norwegian hjelp (“help”).

Noun

help (usually uncountable, plural helps)

1. (uncountable) Action given to provide assistance; aid.

2. (usually uncountable) Something or someone which provides assistance with a task.

3. Documentation provided with computer software, etc. and accessed using the computer.

4. (usually uncountable) One or more people employed to help in the maintenance of a house or the operation of a farm or enterprise.

5. (uncountable) Correction of deficits, as by psychological counseling or medication or social support or remedial training.

Usage notes

• The sense “people employed to help in the maintenance of a house” is usually an uncountable mass noun. A countable form - “a hired help”, “two hired helps” - is attested, but now less common. Helper could be used if no more specific noun is available.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:help.

Synonyms

• (action given to provide assistance): aid, assistance

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English helpen, from Old English helpan (“to help, aid, assist, benefit, relieve, cure”), from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, Proto-Germanic *helpan? (“to help”), from Proto-Indo-European *?elb-, *?elp- (“to help”).

Cognate with West Frisian helpe (“to help”), Dutch helpen (“to help”), Low German helpen, hölpen (“to help”), German helfen (“to help”), Danish hjælpe (“to help”), Norwegian hjelpe (“to help”), Lithuanian šelpti (“to help, support”).

Verb

help (third-person singular simple present helps, present participle helping, simple past helped or (archaic) holp, past participle helped or (archaic) holpen)

1. (transitive) To provide assistance to (someone or something).

2. (transitive) To assist (a person) in getting something, especially food or drink at table; used with to.

3. (transitive) To contribute in some way to.

4. (intransitive) To provide assistance.

5. (transitive) To avoid; to prevent; to refrain from; to restrain (oneself). Usually used in nonassertive contexts with can.

Usage notes

• Use 4 is often used in the imperative mood as a call for assistance.
• In uses 1, 2, 3 and 4, this is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. It can also take the bare infinitive with no change in meaning.
• In use 5, can't help is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) or, with but, the bare infinitive.
• For more information, see Appendix:English catenative verbs

Synonyms

• (provide assistance to): aid, assist, come to the aid of, help out; See also Thesaurus:help
• (contribute in some way to): contribute to
• (provide assistance): assist; See also Thesaurus:assist

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

help!

1. A cry of distress or an urgent request for assistance

   (Robin Hood (1973))

Translations

Anagrams

• Pehl

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch helpen, from Middle Dutch helpen, from Old Dutch helpan, from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, from Proto-Germanic *helpan?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???lp/

Verb

help (present help, present participle helpende, past participle gehelp)

1. to help

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?lp

Verb

help

1. first-person singular present indicative of helpen
2. imperative of helpen

Esperanto

Etymology

From the bare root of helpi, following the model of English help! considered as internationally understood.

Interjection

help

1. Help! (as a cry of distress)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *help?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xelp/, [he?p]

Noun

help f

1. help

Descendants

• Middle English: help
  • English: help
  • Scots: help

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) , “help”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old Norse

Verb

help

1. first-person singular present indicative active of hjalpa

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English help.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?lp/

Noun

help m (uncountable, not mutable)

1. help, aid

   Synonyms: cymorth, cynhorthwy

Derived terms

• help llaw (“a helping hand”)
• helpu (“to help”)

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian helpe, from Proto-Germanic *help?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?lp/

Noun

help c (plural helpen, diminutive helpke)

1. help, assistance, aid

   Synonyms: assistinsje, bystân

Further reading

• “help (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

From French prompt, from Latin pr?mptus (“visible, apparent, evident”), past participle of pr?m? (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light”), from pr? (“forth, forward”) + em? (“to take, acquire, buy”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p??mpt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /p??mpt/
• Rhymes: -?mpt

Adjective

prompt (comparative more prompt, superlative most prompt)

1. Quick; acting without delay.

2. On time; punctual.

3. (archaic) Ready; willing to act.

Synonyms

• (acting without delay): hasty; see also Thesaurus:prompt
• (on time): timely; see also Thesaurus:punctual
• (willing to act): good to go, yare

Derived terms

• prompt critical
• prompt criticality
• promptness
• prompt neutron
• promptly

Translations

Noun

prompt (plural prompts)

1. A reminder or cue.
2. (business, dated) A time limit given for payment of an account for produce purchased, this limit varying with different goods.

   • To cover any probable difference of price which might arise before the expiration of the prompt, which for this article [tea] is three months.

3. (computing) A sequence of characters that appears on a monitor to indicate that the computer is ready to receive input.

   I filled in my name where the prompt appeared on the computer screen but my account wasn't recognized.

4. (writing) A suggestion for inspiration given to an author.

Translations

Verb

prompt (third-person singular simple present prompts, present participle prompting, simple past and past participle prompted)

1. (transitive) To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do.

   I prompted him to get a new job.

2. (transitive, theater and television) To show or tell an actor/person the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing.

   If he forgets his words I will prompt him.

3. (transitive) To initiate; to cause or lead to.
   • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 27:

     On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer, the first sound-synched feature film, prompting a technological shift of unprecedented speed and unstoppable force. Within two years, nearly every studio release was a talkie.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:advise

Derived terms

• prompter

Translations

Further reading

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

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pr?mpt/
• Hyphenation: prompt
• Rhymes: -?mpt

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French prompt, from Latin pr?mptus.

Adverb

prompt

1. immediately, promptly

   Synonym: meteen

Adjective

prompt (not comparable)

1. quick, immediate

Inflection

Derived terms

• pront

Related terms

• pronto

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English prompt, from Middle French prompt, from Latin pr?mptus.

Noun

prompt m (plural prompts)

1. (computing) prompt

French

Etymology

Inherited from Latin promptus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???/, /p???t/, /p???pt/

Adjective

prompt (feminine singular prompte, masculine plural prompts, feminine plural promptes)

1. prompt, swift, quick
2. (Louisiana) curt

Derived terms

• prompt rétablissement

Further reading

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

Norman

Etymology

From Latin pr?mptus, past participle of pr?m? (“I take, bring out, produce, bring to light”).

Adjective

prompt m

1. (Jersey) hasty

Derived terms

• promptément (“hastily”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• prompte

Etymology

From French prompt, from Latin promptus, from promere (“bring out”)

Adverb

prompt

1. quickly and punctually; promptly

Adjective

prompt (singular and plural prompt, comparative mer prompt, superlative mest prompt)

1. quick and punctual; prompt

References

• “prompt” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “prompt” in The Ordnett Dictionary

Romanian

Etymology

From French prompt, from Latin promptus.

Adjective

prompt m or n (feminine singular prompt?, masculine plural promp?i, feminine and neuter plural prompte)

1. prompt

Declension