different between incumbent vs encumbered

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from stem incumbent-, of Medieval Latin incumb?ns (“holder of a church position”), from Latin present participle of incumb? (“I lie down upon”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?k?mb?nt/

Adjective

incumbent (comparative more incumbent, superlative most incumbent)

1. Imposed on someone as an obligation, especially due to one's office.
   • December 22 1678, Thomas Sprat, A Sermon Preached before the King at White-Hall

     all men truly Zelous , will […] endeavor to perform the first kind of good Works alwaies; those, I mean, that are incumbent on all Christians

2. Lying; resting; reclining; recumbent.
   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture

     two incumbent figures, gracefully leaning upon it

   • to move the incumbent load they try

3. Prevalent, prevailing, predominant.
4. (botany, geology) Resting on something else; in botany, said of anthers when lying on the inner side of the filament, or of cotyledons when the radicle lies against the back of one of them.

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

5. (zoology) Bent downwards so that the ends touch, or rest on, something else.

6. Being the current holder of an office or a title.

Derived terms

• incumbency

Translations

Noun

incumbent (plural incumbents)

1. The current holder of an office, such as ecclesiastical benefice or an elected office.
   • 2012, The Economist, October 6, 2012 issue, The first presidential debate: Back in the centre, back in the game

     Mr Obama’s problems were partly structural. An incumbent must defend the realities and compromises of government, while a challenger is freer to promise the earth, details to follow. Mr Obama’s odd solution was to play both incumbent and challenger, jumping from a defence of his record to indignation at such ills as over-crowded classrooms and tax breaks for big oil companies.

2. (business) A holder of a position as supplier to a market or market segment that allows the holder to earn above-normal profits.
   • 2012, The Economist, September 29 2012 issue, Schumpeter: Fixing the capitalist machine

     American capitalism is becoming like its European cousin: established firms with the scale and scope to deal with a growing thicket of regulations are doing well, but new companies are withering on the vine or selling themselves to incumbents.

Translations

See also

• incumbent on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Latin

Verb

incumbent

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

English

Adjective

encumbered (comparative more encumbered, superlative most encumbered)

1. Weighted down, loaded sufficiently to make slow.

Antonyms

• unencumbered

Related terms

• encumber
• cumber

Translations

Verb

encumbered

1. simple past tense and past participle of encumber

Anagrams

• Undecember