different between honorable vs expedient

English

Alternative forms

• honble (obsolete)
• Honorable (honorific)
• (British spelling:) honourable, Honourable (honorific)

Etymology

From Old French honorable, honurable, from Latin hon?r?bilis, from hon?r? (“I honour”); cognate with Italian onorabile, Spanish honorable. Surface analysis is honor +? -able.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ?n??r?bl, ?n?r?bl, IPA^(key): /??n???bl?/, /??n??bl?/
• (General American) enPR: ?n??r?bl, ?n?r?bl, IPA^(key): /??n???bl?/, /??n??bl?/
• Hyphenation: hon?or?able, honor?able

Adjective

honorable (comparative more honorable, superlative most honorable) (American spelling)

1. Worthy of respect; respectable.
2. (politics) A courtesy title, given in Britain and the Commonwealth to a cabinet minister, minister of state, or senator, and in the United States to the president, vice president, congresspeople, state governors and legislators, and mayors.

Synonyms

• venerable
• noble
• Hon'ble
• Hon.

Antonyms

• despicable
• contemptible
• mean

Derived terms

• Hon., Hon'ble, Honourable
• honorably, honourably
• (politics): right honorable, right honourable

Translations

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin hon?r?bilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /o.no??a.bl?/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /u.nu??a.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /o.no??a.ble/

Adjective

honorable (masculine and feminine plural honorables)

1. honorable

Derived terms

• honorablement

Further reading

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

French

Etymology

From Old French [Term?], borrowed from Latin hon?r?bilis.

Pronunciation

• ^{(mute h)} IPA^(key): /?.n?.?abl/

Adjective

honorable (plural honorables)

1. honorable

Derived terms

• faire amende honorable
• hon.
• très honorable

Related terms

• honneur

Further reading

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

Galician

Alternative forms

• honorábel

Etymology

From Latin hon?r?bilis.

Adjective

honorable m or f (plural honorables)

1. honorable

Related terms

• honor
• honra

Further reading

• “honorable” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hon?r?bilis. Equivalent to honor +? -able.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ono??able/, [o.no??a.??le]

Adjective

honorable (plural honorables)

1. honorable

   Synonym: honesto

Derived terms

• honorablemente

Related terms

• honor
• honra
• honrar

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English expedient, from Old French expedient, from Latin expediens (stem expedient-), present participle of expedire (“to bring forward, to dispatch, to expedite; impers. to be profitable, serviceable, advantageous, expedient”), from ex (“out”) + p?s (“foot, hoof”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?spi?di.?nt/

Adjective

expedient (comparative more expedient, superlative most expedient)

1. Suitable to effect some desired end or the purpose intended.
   • a. 1863, Richard Whately, Thoughts and Apophthegms

     Nothing but the right can ever be the expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good to a less.

2. Affording short-term benefit, often at the expense of the long-term.
3. Governed by self-interest, often short-term self-interest.
4. (obsolete) Expeditious, quick, rapid.
   • a 1623, Shakespeare, King John, Act II, scene i, lines 57–61:

     the adverse winds / Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time / To land his legions all as soon as I; / His marches are expedient to this town / His forces strong, his soldiers confident.

Synonyms

• advisable, desirable, judicious, politic, prudent, tactical, wise

Related terms

Translations

Noun

expedient (plural expedients)

1. A method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource.
   • 1906, O. Henry, The Green Door:

     He would never let her know that he was aware of the strange expedient to which she had been driven by her great distress.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 709:

     Depressingly, [...] the expedient of importing African slaves was in part meant to protect the native American population from exploitation.

Translations

Further reading

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

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin expedi?ns.

Adjective

expedient (masculine and feminine plural expedients)

1. expedient, convenient

Noun

expedient m (plural expedients)

1. file, record, dossier

Derived terms

• expedientar

Further reading

• “expedient” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Latin

Verb

expedient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of expedi?

Romanian

Etymology

From French expédient.

Noun

expedient n (plural expediente)

1. expedient

Declension