different between instant vs weight

English

Alternative forms

• instaunt (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nst?nt/

Etymology 1

From Middle English instant (“infinitely short period of time”), from Old French instant (“assiduous, at hand”, adj), from Latin instans, instant- (“present, pressing, urgent”, literally “standing near”), from in + st?re (“to stand”). Compare Old English instede (“immediately, on the spot, at once”). More at in, stand.

Noun

instant (plural instants)

1. A very short period of time; a moment.

2. A single, usually precise, point in time.

3. A beverage or food which has been pre-processed to reduce preparation time, especially instant coffee.
5. Ellipsis of instant camera.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French and French instant, from Latin instans (“standing by, being near, present, also urgent, importunate”), present participle of inst? (“to stand upon, press upon, urge, pursue, insist”), from in (“on, upon”) + st? (“to stand”); see state.

Adjective

instant (not comparable)

1. (dated) Impending; imminent.

   Synonyms: pending, proximate; see also Thesaurus:impending

   • 1703, Matthew Prior, an Ode to Colonel George Villiers

     Impending death is thine, and instant doom.

2. (dated) Urgent; pressing; acute.
3. (dated) Insistent; persistent.

   Synonyms: exigent, imperious; see also Thesaurus:urgent

   • Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.

   • January 2, 1827, Thomas Carlyle, letter to Mrs. Carlyle, Scotsbrig

     I am beginning to be very instant for some sort of occupation.

4. (law) Present; current; extant.
   • December 28, 2019 Attorney Jeffery S. Levin, quoted in The Boston Globe, p. 3

     He received just two disciplinary reports prior to committing the instant offense, one in March 2019 for activating an alarm during a non-emergency situation, and one in May 2019 for failing to provide a urine specimen.

5. Occurring immediately; immediate; present.

   Synonyms: instantaneous; see also Thesaurus:instantaneous

   • 1645, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times

     The instant time is always the fittest time.
6. Lasting for a short moment; momentary; short-lived.

   Synonyms: brief, transient; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral

7. Very quickly and easily prepared.

8. Of the current month.

   Synonym: (abbreviation) inst.

Derived terms

• instantize, instantise
• instantly
• instant mash
• instant replay

Related terms

• instakill
• instance

Translations

Adverb

instant (not comparable)

1. (poetic) At once; immediately.
   • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, I.182:

     He left the room for his relinquished sword, / And Julia instant to the closet flew.

Related terms

• inst
• instance
• instancy
• instantaneous
• instantaneously
• instanter
• instantial
• instantiate
• instantly

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin ?nst?ns.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ins?tant/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ins?tan/

Noun

instant m (plural instants)

1. instant (very short period of time)

Related terms

• instantani

Further reading

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

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s.t??/

Adjective

instant (feminine singular instante, masculine plural instants, feminine plural instantes)

1. (literary) pressing, insistent

Noun

instant m (plural instants)

1. instant, minute, moment

Derived terms

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

?nstant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of ?nst?

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English instant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [in?stant]

Adjective

instant m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. instant (very quickly and easily prepared)

Declension

Adjective

instant m or n (feminine singular instant?, masculine plural instan?i, feminine and neuter plural instante)

1. (nonstandard) instant (occurring immediately; immediate; present)

Declension

Synonyms

• instantaneu

Adverb

instant

1. (nonstandard) instantly

Synonyms

• instantaneu

English

Etymology

From Middle English weight, wei?te, weght, wight, from Old English wiht, ?ewiht (“weight”), from Proto-Germanic *wihtiz ("weight"; compare *wegan? (“to move”)), from Proto-Indo-European *we??- (“to move; pull; draw; drive”).

Cognate with Scots wecht, weicht (“weight”), Saterland Frisian Wächte (“scale”) and Gewicht (“weight”), West Frisian gewicht (“weight”), Dutch gewicht (“weight”), German Low German Wicht, Gewicht (“weight”) and German Gewicht (“weight”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?t, IPA^(key): /we?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t
• Homophone: wait

Noun

weight (countable and uncountable, plural weights)

1. The force on an object due to the gravitational attraction between it and the Earth (or whatever astronomical object it is primarily influenced by).
2. An object used to make something heavier.
3. A standardized block of metal used in a balance to measure the mass of another object.
4. Importance or influence.
   • 1907 Alonso de Espinosa, Hakluyt Society & Sir Clements Robert Markham, The Guanches of Tenerife: the holy image of Our Lady of Candelaria, and the Spanish conquest and settlement, Printed for the Hakluyt Society, p116

     Another knight came to settle on the island, a man of much weight and position, on whom the Adelantados of all the island relied, and who was made a magistrate.

   • 1945 Mikia Pezas, The price of liberty, I. Washburn, Inc., p11

     "You surely are a man of some weight around here," I said.

5. (weightlifting) An object, such as a weight plate or barbell, used for strength training.

6. (lubricants) viscosity rating.
8. (physics) Mass (atomic weight, molecular weight, etc.) (in restricted circumstances)
9. (physics, proscribed) Synonym of mass (in general circumstances)
10. (measurement) Mass (net weight, troy weight, carat weight, etc.).
11. (statistics) A variable which multiplies a value for ease of statistical manipulation.
12. (topology) The smallest cardinality of a base.
13. (typography) The boldness of a font; the relative thickness of its strokes.
14. (visual art) The relative thickness of a drawn rule or painted brushstroke, line weight.
15. (visual art) The illusion of mass.
16. (visual art) The thickness and opacity of paint.
17. Pressure; burden.
18. The resistance against which a machine acts, as opposed to the power which moves it.
19. (slang, uncountable) Shipments of (often illegal) drugs.

20. (slang, countable) One pound of drugs, especially cannabis.
    • 2002, Nicholas Dorn, Karim Murji, Nigel South, Traffickers: Drug Markets and Law Enforcement (page 5)

      [I was] doing a weight [1 lb. at that time] a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.
21. (criminal slang, dated) Money.
    • 1974, Martin R. Haskell, ?Lewis Yablonsky, Crime and Delinquency (page 96)

      No matter how much money he makes, he is still a soldier, but he has the weight.

Alternative forms

• wt. (abbreviation)

Derived terms

Related terms

• weigh

Coordinate terms

• mass
• inertial mass
• gravitational mass

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (ueito)
• ? Burmese: ???? (wit)

Translations

Verb

weight (third-person singular simple present weights, present participle weighting, simple past and past participle weighted)

1. (transitive) To add weight to something; to make something heavier.
   1. (transitive, dyeing) To load (fabrics) with barite, etc. to increase the weight.
2. (transitive) To load, burden or oppress someone.
3. (transitive, mathematics) To assign weights to individual statistics.
4. (transitive) To bias something; to slant.
5. (transitive, horse racing) To handicap a horse with a specified weight.
6. (transitive, sports) To give a certain amount of force to a throw, kick, hit, etc.

Translations