different between invention vs apparatus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French invencion, envention, from the Latin inventi?, from inveni?. Doublet of inventio.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n?v?n??n/

Noun

invention (countable and uncountable, plural inventions)

1. Something invented.

   (here signifying a process or mechanism not previously devised)

   (here signifying a fiction created for a particular purpose)

   • 1944 November 28, Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:

     Warren Sheffield is telephoning Rose long distance at half past six. […] Personally, I wouldn't marry a man who proposed to me over an invention.
2. The act of inventing.
3. The capacity to invent.

4. (music) A small, self-contained composition, particularly those in J.S. Bach’s Two- and Three-part Inventions.
   • 1880, George Grove (editor and entry author), A Dictionary of Music and Musicians II, London: Macmillan & Co., page 15, Invention:

     INVENTION.?A term used by J. S. Bach, and probably by him only, for small pianoforte pieces?—?15 in 2 parts and 15 in 3 parts?—?each developing a single idea, and in some measure answering to the Impromptu of a later day.

5. (archaic) The act of discovering or finding; the act of finding out; discovery.

Synonyms

• discovery

Related terms

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “invention”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin inventi?, inventi?nem, from invenio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.v??.sj??/

Noun

invention f (plural inventions)

1. invention

Derived terms

• la nécessité est la mère de l'invention

Related terms

• inventer
• inventeur

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin appar?tus. Doublet of apparat.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US, General South African, India)
  • IPA^(key): /æ.p???e?.t?s/
  • Rhymes: -e?.t?s
• (US, Canada, Philippine)
  • IPA^(key): /æ.p???æ.t?s/
  • Rhymes: -æt?s
• (UK, General Australian, General New Zealand, General South African, Jamaica)
  • IPA^(key): /æp?????t?s/
  • Rhymes: -??t?s

Noun

apparatus (plural apparatuses or apparatusses or apparatus or (rare) apparatûs or (hypercorrect) apparati)

1. The entirety of means whereby a specific production is made existent or task accomplished.

   Synonyms: dynamic, mechanism, setup

2. A complex machine or instrument.

   Synonyms: device, instrument, machinery

3. An assortment of tools and instruments.

   Synonyms: tools, gear, equipment

4. A bureaucratic organization, especially one influenced by political patronage.

   Synonym: machine

5. (firefighting) A vehicle used for emergency response.
6. (gymnastics) Any of the equipment on which the gymnasts perform their movements.

   Hyponyms: parallel bars, uneven bars, vault, floor, pommel horse, rings aka still rings, horizontal bar aka high bar, balance beam

7. (video games) A complex, highly modified weapon (typically not a firearm); a weaponized “Rube Goldberg machine.”

   Hyponyms: windlass crossbow, compound bow, complex trap

Usage notes

The word is occasionally used as an invariant plural, as in look at all of those apparatus, maintaining the Latin inflection in English on a loanword basis. But because the word also has a mass noun sense in English and it often appears in such a way that its number (singular or plural) is disguised by absence of any inflectional or lexical signals as to which of these two senses pertained in the mind of the writer, readers may parse it in either sense. Thus in the phrase he was dazzled by the electronic apparatus scattered throughout the room, either parsing works, and the reader cannot tell which one the writer had in mind, although that slight ambiguity is unimportant to the point being made.

Related terms

• apparat

Derived terms

Translations

Latin

Etymology

Perfect passive participle of appar? (“prepare”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ap.pa?ra?.tus/, [äp?ä??ä?t??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ap.pa?ra.tus/, [?p??????t?us]

Participle

appar?tus (feminine appar?ta, neuter appar?tum, comparative appar?tior, superlative appar?tissimus); first/second-declension participle

1. prepared, ready, having been prepared
2. supplied, furnished, having been supplied
3. magnificent, sumptuous, elaborate

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Noun

appar?tus m (genitive appar?t?s); fourth declension

1. preparation, a getting ready
2. A providing
3. tools, implements, instruments, engines
4. supplies, material
5. magnificence, splendor, pomp
6. vocative singular of appar?tus

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Descendants

Noun

appar?t?s m

1. genitive singular of appar?tus
2. nominative plural of appar?tus
3. accusative plural of appar?tus
4. vocative plural of appar?tus

References

• apparatus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• apparatus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• apparatus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• apparatus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
• apparatus in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[4], pre-publication website, 2005-2016