different between hireling vs inferior

English

Etymology

From Middle English hirlyng, from Old English h?rling (“hireling, employee”), from Proto-West Germanic *h??ijuling. Cognate with West Frisian hierling, Dutch huurling (“hireling, mercenary”), German Low German Hüürling,German Heuerling.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ha?.?.l??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ha???l??/

Noun

hireling (plural hirelings)

1. (usually derogatory) An employee who is hired, often to perform unpleasant tasks with little independence.
   • 1611, King James Version, Job 7:1:

     Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

   • 1848: William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 19:

     When my poor James was in the smallpox, did I allow any hireling to nurse him?

2. (usually derogatory) Someone who does a job purely for money, rather than out of interest in the work itself.
   • 1605: Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning

     ... it may be truly affirmed that no kind of men love business for itself but those that are learned; for other persons love it for profit, as a hireling that loves the work for the wages;

   • 1821, Lord Byron, Sardanapalus, Act II, sc. 1:

     These vain bickerings

     Are spawn'd in courts by base intrigues and baser

     Hirelings, who live by lies on good men's lives.

3. A horse for hire.
   • 1934, Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust, Chapter 3, Section 5:

     In the afternoon they went to a neighbouring livery stables to look for hirellings.

4. (obsolete) A prostitute.

Synonyms

• flunky
• lackey
• mercenary

Translations

See also

• underling

English

Alternative forms

• inferiour (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ?nferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of ?nferus (“below, underneath”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?nfîr??r
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?f??.?i.?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?f??.i.?/
• Rhymes: -???i?(?)

Adjective

inferior (comparative more inferior, superlative most inferior)

1. Lower in rank, status, or quality.
   1. Of low rank, standard or quality.

   2. (law) (of a court or tribunal) Susceptible to having its decisions overturned by a higher court.
   3. (economics) Denoting goods or services which are in greater demand during a recession than in a boom, for example second-hand clothes.
2. Located below:
   1. (anatomy) Situated below another and especially another similar superior part of an upright body.
   2. (zoology) Situated in a relatively low posterior or ventral position in a quadrupedal body.
   3. (botany) Situated below some other organ; said of a calyx when free from the ovary, and therefore below it, or of an ovary with an adherent and therefore inferior calyx.
   4. (botany) On the side of a flower which is next to the bract.

      Synonym: anterior

   5. (typography) Printed in subscript.

   6. (astronomy) Below the horizon.

3. (astronomy) Nearer to the Sun than the Earth is.

Usage notes

Inferior and superior are generally followed by to; than is seen sometimes, but is viewed as wrong.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:bad

Antonyms

• superior

Coordinate terms

• (dentistry location adjectives) anterior,? apical,? apicocoronal,? axial,? buccal,? buccoapical,? buccocervical,? buccogingival,? buccolabial,? buccolingual,? bucco-occlusal,? buccopalatal,? cervical,? coronal,? coronoapical,? distal,? distoapical,? distobuccal,? distocervical,? distocoronal,? distofacial,? distogingival,? distoincisal,? distolingual,? disto-occlusal,? distoclusal,? distocclusal,? distopalatal,? facial,? gingival,? incisal,? incisocervical,? inferior,? labial,? lingual,? linguobuccal,? linguo-occlusal,? mandibular,? maxillary,? mesial,? mesioapical,? mesiobuccal,? mesiocervical,? mesiocoronal,? mesiodistal,? mesiofacial,? mesioincisal,? mesiogingival,? mesiolingual,? mesio-occlusal,? mesioclusal,? mesiocclusal,? mesiopalatal,? occlusal,? palatal,? posterior,? proximal,? superior,? vestibular ^{(Category: en:Dentistry) [edit]}

Derived terms

Related terms

• Armenia Inferior
• limit inferior

Translations

Noun

inferior (plural inferiors)

1. A person of lower rank, stature, or ability to another.

   Antonym: superior

2. (printing) An inferior letter, figure, or symbol.

Translations

References

• “inferior”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “inferior”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).
• inferior in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• inferior at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• fire iron, fireiron

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin ?nferior.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /im.f?.?i?o/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /im.fe.?i?o?/

Adjective

inferior (masculine and feminine plural inferiors)

1. inferior
2. lower

Related terms

• inferioritat

Further reading

• “inferior” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “inferior” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “inferior” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “inferior” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ?nferior (“lower, inferior”), the comparative of ?nferus (“low, nether, underground”).

Adjective

inferior (not comparable)

1. subordinate, secondary
2. (of people) inferior

3. substandard, bad

Declension

Further reading

• “inferior” in Duden online

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /in?fe.ri.or/, [???f??i?r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /in?fe.ri.or/, [in?f???i?r]

Adjective

?nferior (neuter ?nferius, positive ?nferus); third declension

1. comparative degree of ?nferus, lower in situation or place:
   1. Subsequent, later, latter in time or succession.
   2. Inferior in quality, rank, or number.

Inflection

Third-declension comparative adjective.

Related terms

• infimus (superlative)

Descendants

References

• inferior in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• inferior in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• inferior in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin ?nferior.

Pronunciation

Adjective

inferior m (feminine singular inferiora, masculine plural inferiors, feminine plural inferioras)

1. inferior
2. lower

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin inferior.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /?.f???jo?/
• Hyphenation: in?fe?ri?or

Adjective

inferior m or f (plural inferiores, comparable)

1. inferior

   Antonym: superior

Romanian

Etymology

From French inférieur, from Latin inferior.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?in.fe.ri?or/

Adjective

inferior m or n (feminine singular inferioar?, masculine plural inferiori, feminine and neuter plural inferioare)

1. inferior

Declension

Antonyms

• superior

Related terms

• inferioritate

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin inferior.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /infe??jo?/, [??.fe??jo?]
• Hyphenation: in?fe?rior

Adjective

inferior (plural inferiores)

1. inferior (of lower quality)
2. inferior (of lower rank)
3. inferior (below)

Antonyms

• superior

Derived terms

Related terms

• inferioridad

Further reading

• “inferior” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.