different between obliging vs expedient

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??bla?d????/
• Rhymes: -a?d???
• Hyphenation: ob?lig?ing

Adjective

obliging (comparative more obliging, superlative most obliging)

1. Happy and ready to do favours for others.

Synonyms

• accommodating, willing

Derived terms

• obligingly
• obligingness

Translations

Verb

obliging

1. present participle of oblige

Noun

obliging (plural obligings)

1. The imposition of an obligation.
   • 1840, Alexander MacDonald, Summary of the Catholic Religion

     Many were the finings, and excommunications, and the obligings to do penances, that took place at this time.

English

Etymology

From Middle English expedient, from Old French expedient, from Latin expediens (stem expedient-), present participle of expedire (“to bring forward, to dispatch, to expedite; impers. to be profitable, serviceable, advantageous, expedient”), from ex (“out”) + p?s (“foot, hoof”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?spi?di.?nt/

Adjective

expedient (comparative more expedient, superlative most expedient)

1. Suitable to effect some desired end or the purpose intended.
   • a. 1863, Richard Whately, Thoughts and Apophthegms

     Nothing but the right can ever be the expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a greater good to a less.

2. Affording short-term benefit, often at the expense of the long-term.
3. Governed by self-interest, often short-term self-interest.
4. (obsolete) Expeditious, quick, rapid.
   • a 1623, Shakespeare, King John, Act II, scene i, lines 57–61:

     the adverse winds / Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time / To land his legions all as soon as I; / His marches are expedient to this town / His forces strong, his soldiers confident.

Synonyms

• advisable, desirable, judicious, politic, prudent, tactical, wise

Related terms

Translations

Noun

expedient (plural expedients)

1. A method or means for achieving a particular result, especially when direct or efficient; a resource.
   • 1906, O. Henry, The Green Door:

     He would never let her know that he was aware of the strange expedient to which she had been driven by her great distress.

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, page 709:

     Depressingly, [...] the expedient of importing African slaves was in part meant to protect the native American population from exploitation.

Translations

Further reading

• expedient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• expedient in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• expedient at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “expedient”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin expedi?ns.

Adjective

expedient (masculine and feminine plural expedients)

1. expedient, convenient

Noun

expedient m (plural expedients)

1. file, record, dossier

Derived terms

• expedientar

Further reading

• “expedient” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Latin

Verb

expedient

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

Romanian

Etymology

From French expédient.

Noun

expedient n (plural expediente)

1. expedient

Declension