different between intermittently vs intermittent

English

Etymology

intermittent +? -ly

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n.t??m?t.?nt.l?/

Adverb

intermittently (not comparable)

1. Stopping or starting at intervals.

Synonyms

• flakily, sporadically, unreliably; see also Thesaurus:discontinuously

Related terms

• intermittent
• intermittence

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle French intermittent, from Latin intermittens (“sending between”), from prefix inter- (“among, on”) + mittens (“sending”), from mittere (“to send”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??nt??m?tn?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??nt??m?tn?t/

Adjective

intermittent (comparative more intermittent, superlative most intermittent)

1. Stopping and starting, occuring, or presenting at intervals; coming after a particular time span.

   Synonyms: periodic, periodical, patchy, spasmodic; see also Thesaurus:discontinuous

   Antonyms: steady, constant, continual

   • 1564, Philip Moore, The Hope of Health, London, Chapter 13,^[1]

     Also bloudletting is good in feuers, whether they be continual or intermittent […]

   • 1698, Robert South, Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions, London: Thomas Bennet, Volume 3, p. 511,^[2]

     […] the Gift of Prophecy […] was in the mind not as an Inhabitant, but as a Guest; that is, by intermittent Returns and Ecstasies, by Occasional Raptures and Revelations; as is clear from what we read of the Prophets in the Old Testament.

   • 1792, Richard Cumberland, Calvary: or The Death of Christ, London: C. Dilly, Book 5, lines 364-366, p. 164,^[3]

     […] Pale through night’s curtain gleam’d

     By fits the lunar intermittent ray,

     That quiv’ring serv’d to light his lonely steps
2. (specifically, geology, of a body of water) Existing only for certain seasons; that is, being dry for part of the year.

Derived terms

Related terms

• inter
• inter-
• intermit
• intermittence
• intermittency

Translations

Noun

intermittent (plural intermittents)

1. (medicine, dated) An intermittent fever or disease.
   • 1592, Nicholas Gyer, The English Phlebotomy: or, Method and Way of Healing by Letting of Blood, London: Andrew Mansell, Chapter 16, p. 172,^[5]

     Feuers, and especially those that are called intermittents, discontinuing agues, euen naturally at the beginning and their first inuasion, cause vomits: and at the declining, sweats.

   • 1733, John Arbuthnot, An Essay concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, London: J. Tonson, Chapter 6, p. 144,^[6]

     The Bark, which had been ineffectual in the Intermittents of the former Year, was successful in this.

   • 1832, Robley Dunglison, Human Physiology, Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, Volume 2, “Circulation,” p. 146,^[7]

     In disease, the agency of this system of vessels is an object of attentive study with the pathologist. To its influence in inflammation, we have already alluded; but it is no less exemplified in the more general diseases of the frame, as in the cold, hot, and sweating stages of an intermittent.

French

Etymology

From Latin intermitt?ns.

Adjective

intermittent (feminine singular intermittente, masculine plural intermittents, feminine plural intermittentes)

1. Intermittent.

Derived terms

• intermittemment

Further reading

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

Latin

Verb

intermittent

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