different between obedience vs hearken

English

Alternative forms

• oboedience (obsolete, rare)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman obedience, from Old French obedience (modern French obédience), from Latin oboedientia. Cognate with obeisance.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?(?)?bi?d??ns/

Noun

obedience (countable and uncountable, plural obediences)

1. The quality of being obedient.
   • February 24, 1823, Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mr. Edward Everett

     Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VIII

     Cautioning Nobs to silence, and he had learned many lessons in the value of obedience since we had entered Caspak, I slunk forward, taking advantage of whatever cover I could find...

2. The collective body of persons subject to any particular authority.
3. A written instruction from the superior of an order to those under him.
4. Any official position under an abbot's jurisdiction.

Synonyms

• hearsomeness (nonce word)
• submission

Antonyms

• disobedience, defiance, rebellion (ignoring)
• violation (ignoring, especially rules)
• control, dominance (ruling)

Related terms

• obedient
• obeisance
• obey

Translations

Further reading

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

Old French

Etymology

From Latin

Noun

obedience f (oblique plural obediences, nominative singular obedience, nominative plural obediences)

1. obedience
2. authority; influence; power

English

Etymology

From Middle English herkenen (“to listen (attentively); to pay attention, take heed”) [and other forms], from Old English hercnian, heorcnian, hyrcnian, from *heorcian (“to hark”) infixed with -n-, from Proto-Germanic *hauzijan? (“to hear”), from Proto-Indo-European *h??h?owsyéti (“to be sharp-eared, hear well”), from *h?e?- (“sharp”) + *h??ws (“ear”) + *-yéti (denominative suffix). The spelling of the English word was probably influenced by hear, and can be analysed as hark +? -en.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??k(?)n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?h??k?n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k?n
• Hyphenation: heark?en

Verb

hearken (third-person singular simple present hearkens, present participle hearkening, simple past and past participle hearkened)

1. (transitive, archaic except poetic) To hear (something) with attention; to have regard to (something).
2. (intransitive) To listen; to attend or give heed to what is uttered; to hear with attention, compliance, or obedience.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To enquire; to seek information.

Usage notes

The form hearken is much more common in Britain, while harken (which is older and thought by some to be more regularly formed from hark) is more common in the United States.

Conjugation

Alternative forms

• harken (chiefly US)

Derived terms

• behearken
• hearken back
• hearkener

Translations

References

Further reading

• hearken in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.