different between instance vs item

English

Alternative forms

• enstance, enstaunce, instaunce (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French instance, from Latin instantia (“a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency”), from instans (“urgent”); see instant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nst?ns/

Noun

instance (plural instances)

1. (obsolete) Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence. [14th-19th c.]
2. (obsolete) A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.

   It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves. Hamlet IV. v. ca. 1602

3. (obsolete) That which is urgent; motive.
4. (obsolete) A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something). [16th-18th c.]
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors:

     The reason that I gather he is mad, Besides this present instance of his rage, Is a mad tale he told to day at dinner […]

5. Occasion; order of occurrence.
   • 1713, Matthew Hale, The History of the Common Law of England

     These seem as if, in the time of Edward I., they were drawn up into the form of a law, in the first instance.

6. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example. [from 16th c.]
   • August 30, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet

     most remarkable instances of suffering

   • :

     sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he never saw […]

7. One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
   • 2010, The Guardian, 11 Oct 2010:

     The organisations claim fraudsters are targeting properties belonging to both individuals and companies, in some instances using forged documents.

8. (computing) A specific occurrence of something that is created or instantiated, such as a database, or an object of a class in object-oriented programming. [from 20th c.]
   • 2000, Dov Bulka, David Mayhew, Efficient C++: Performance Programming Techniques (page 149)

     Some compilers will allow statics to be inlined, but then incorrectly create multiple instances of the inlined variable at run-time.

9. (massively multiplayer online games) A dungeon or other area that is duplicated for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.
   • 2006 September 1, "Dan" (username), "Re: DPS Classes: Why should I heal you?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

     As long as the most difficult instance you've tried is Gnomeregan, you're never going to be credible talking about 'difficult encounters'.

   • 2010, William Sims Bainbridge, Online Multiplayer Games, Morgan & Claypool, ?ISBN, page 26:

     For example, when a team of five players enters the Sunken Temple instance in World of Warcraft, they will battle many monsters, but they will not encounter other players even though several teams of players may be experiencing the Sunken Temple at the same time.

   • 2012, anonymous gamer quoted in Andrew Ee & Hichang Cho, "What Makes an MMORPG Leader? A Social Cognitive Theory-Based Approach to Understanding the Formation of Leadership Capabilities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games", Eludamos, volume 6, page 31:

     Beating a difficult instance becomes second nature after running through it…a few times, with good leaders knowing exactly what to do and how to co-ordinate member actions.

10. (massively multiplayer online games) An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
    • 2005 January 11, Patrick B., "Re: Instance dungeons", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      The instance is created for the group that enters it.

    • 2005 December 6, "Rene" (username), "Re: Does group leader affect drops?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      As soon as the first player enters (spawns) a new instance, it appears that the loottable is somehow chosen.

    • 2010, Anthony Steed & Manuel Fradinho Oliveira, Networked Graphics: Building Networked Games and Virtual Environments, Elsevier, ?ISBN, page 398:

      A castle on the eastern edge of the island spawns a new instance whenever a party of players enters.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• (computing) closure, class, object

Verb

instance (third-person singular simple present instances, present participle instancing, simple past and past participle instanced)

1. (transitive) To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite
   • 1946, E. M. Butler, Rainer Maria Rilke, p. 404

     The poems which I have instanced are concrete and relatively glaring examples of the intangible difference which the change of language made in Rilke's visions .

2. (intransitive) To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.

References

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

Anagrams

• ancients, canniest, cantines, catenins, enactins, insectan, tenascin

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s.t??s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Etymology 1

From Latin instantia

Noun

instance f (plural instances)

1. (often in the plural) urgent demand, insistence, plea
2. authority, forum, agency, body
3. (law) legal proceedings, prosecution process
4. (object-oriented programming) instance

Derived terms

• en instance
• tribunal d'instance
• première instance

Etymology 2

A derivative of etymology 1, but reborrowed from English.

Noun

instance f (plural instances)

1. (computing) instance

Anagrams

• cantines

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English item, from Latin item (“also; in the same manner”). The present English meaning derives from a usage in lists, where the first entry would begin in primis (“firstly”) or imprimis, and the other entries with item (“also, moreover”). Later, people less familiar with Latin, seeing such lists, took the word "item" as meaning "a member of a list".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a?t?m/
  • (US) IPA^(key): [?a????m], [?a???m?]
• Hyphenation: item

Noun

item (plural items)

1. A distinct physical object.
2. (by extension, video games) An object that can be picked up for later use.
3. A line of text having a legal or other meaning; a separate particular in an account.

4. (psychometrics) A question on a test, which may include its answers.

5. A matter for discussion in an agenda.

6. (informal) Two people who are having a relationship with each other.
   • 2010, Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris, Baby

     Are we an item? Girl, quit playin' / "We're just friends," what are you sayin'?

7. A short article in a newspaper.

8. (obsolete) A hint; an innuendo.

   • A secret item was given to some of the bishops […] to absent themselves.

Synonyms

• (object): article, object, thing
• (line of text having a legal or semantic meaning):
• (matter for discussion): subject, topic
• (two people who are having a relationship with each other): couple
• (psychometrics): test/assessment question

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

item (third-person singular simple present items, present participle iteming, simple past and past participle itemed)

1. (transitive) To make a note of.

Related terms

• itemize

Adverb

item (not comparable)

1. likewise

Anagrams

• -time, METI, emit, it me, mite, time

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [??t?m]

Adverb

item

1. (archaic) as well

   Synonyms: také, rovn?ž, dále, krom? toho

Further reading

• item in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• item in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

French

Etymology

Latin.

Adverb

item

1. same; in the same way

Further reading

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

Italian

Etymology 1

From Latin item.

Adverb

item

1. (law) in the same way.

Etymology 2

From English item, from Latin item.

Noun

item m (invariable)

1. (computer science) A single programmed unit.
2. (linguistics) An element of a grammatical or lexical set.

Latin

Etymology

Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *éy and *só. Compare ita and itidem.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?i.tem/, [??t????]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?i.tem/, [?i?t??m]

Adverb

item (not comparable)

1. just like (in a comparison)

Related terms

References

• item in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• item in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• item in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Middle English

Etymology

From Latin item.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?t?m/

Adverb

item

1. also, and this.

References

• “item, adv. & n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-25.

Noun

item

1. the same; identical.

Descendants

• English: item
• Scots: eetem

References

• “item, adv. & n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-25.

Middle French

Etymology

Latin.

Adverb

item

1. same; in the same way

Old French

Etymology

Latin.

Adverb

item

1. same; in the same way

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin item (“also; in the same manner”).

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /?i.t?m/, /?i.t??j?/
• Hyphenation: i?tem

Noun

item m (plural itens)

1. item
2. A matter for discussion in an agenda or elsewhere.

3. A line of text with some meaning.