different between piece vs particular

English

Alternative forms

• peece (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pece, peece, peice, from Old French piece, from Late Latin petia, pettia, possibly from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”); doublet of English fit, fytte, fytt (“musical piece, chapter”), Icelandic fit (“web”), German Fitze (“skein”), from Old High German *fitjâ. Compare Welsh peth, Breton pez (“thing”), Irish cuid. Compare French pièce, Portuguese peça, Spanish pieza.

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?s, IPA^(key): /pi?s/
• Rhymes: -i?s
• Homophone: peace

Noun

piece (plural pieces)

1. A part of a larger whole, usually in such a form that it is able to be separated from other parts.
2. A single item belonging to a class of similar items
3. (chess) One of the figures used in playing chess, specifically a higher-value figure as distinguished from a pawn; by extension, a similar counter etc. in other games.
   • 1959, Hans Kmoch, Pawn Power in Chess, I:

     Pawns, unlike pieces, move only in one direction: forward.

4. A coin, especially one valued at less than the principal unit of currency.

   a sixpenny piece

5. An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, musical composition, literary work, etc.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:musical composition

6. An article published in the press.
7. (military) An artillery gun.
   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 55,^[1]

     […] all our Ammunition was spent. Those of us who had Money made Slugs of it; their next Shift was to take the middle Screws out of their Guns, and charge their Pieces with them.

8. (US, colloquial) A gun.
9. (US, Canada, colloquial, short for hairpiece) A toupee or wig, especially when worn by a man.

10. (Scotland, Ireland, Britain, US, dialectal) A slice or other quantity of bread, eaten on its own; a sandwich or light snack.
    • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin 2009, page 46:

      My grannie came and gived them all a piece and jam and cups of water then I was to bring them back out to the street and play a game.

11. (US, colloquial, vulgar) A sexual encounter; from piece of ass or piece of tail.

12. (US, colloquial, mildly vulgar, short for piece of crap/piece of shit) A shoddy or worthless object (usually applied to consumer products like vehicles or appliances).

13. (US, slang) A cannabis pipe.
14. (baseball, uncountable) Used to describe a pitch that has been hit but not well, usually either being caught by the opposing team or going foul. Usually used in the past tense with get.

15. (dated, sometimes derogatory) An individual; a person.
    • c. 1579, Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy

      If I had not been a piece of a logician before I came to him.

    • 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aid to Reflection

      His own spirit is as unsettled a piece as there is in all the world.

16. (obsolete) A castle; a fortified building.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

17. (US) A pacifier; a dummy.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pacifier

18. (colloquial) A distance.

19. (rowing) A structured practice row, often used for performance evaluation.

20. An amount of work to be done at one time; a unit of piece work.

Usage notes

When used as a baseball term, the term is figurative in that the baseball is almost never broken into pieces. It is rare in modern baseball for the cover of a baseball to even partially tear loose. In professional baseball, several new, not previously played baseballs are used in each game.

It could be argued that the phrase was never meant (not even metaphorically) to refer to breaking the ball into pieces, and that "get a piece of the ball" means the bat contacts only a small area of the ball - in other words, that the ball is hit off-center. In that case "get" would mean "succeed in hitting", not "obtain".

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:piece

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: pisi
• ? Finnish: biisi
• ? Japanese: ??? (p?su)

Translations

See also

• chunk
• bit
• peace

Verb

piece (third-person singular simple present pieces, present participle piecing, simple past and past participle pieced)

1. (transitive, usually with together) To assemble (something real or figurative).

   • His adversaries […] pieced themselves together in a joint opposition against him.

2. To make, enlarge, or repair, by the addition of a piece or pieces; to patch; often with out.
3. (slang) To produce a work of graffiti more complex than a tag.

Derived terms

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French piece, from Vulgar Latin *pettia, from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

piece f (plural pieces)

1. piece, bit, part
2. moment (duration of time)

Descendants

• French: pièce
  • ? Danish: pjece
  • ? Northern Kurdish: piyes
  • ? Norwegian:

    Norwegian Bokmål: piece

  • ? Romanian: pies?
  • ? Russian: ?????? (p?jésa)
    • ? Kazakh: ????? (p?esa)
  • ? Swedish: pjäs
  • ? Yiddish: ??????? (pyese)
• Norman: pièche (Jersey)

References

• piece on Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500) (in French)

Old French

Alternative forms

• pece

Etymology

From Late Latin pettia, from Gaulish *petty?, from Proto-Celtic *k?esdis (“piece, portion”).

Noun

piece f (oblique plural pieces, nominative singular piece, nominative plural pieces)

1. piece, bit, part
   • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     Que del hiaume une piece tranche.

     It cuts a piece off his helmet

Descendants

• Middle French: piece
  • French: pièce
    • ? Danish: pjece
    • ? Northern Kurdish: piyes
    • ? Norwegian:

      Norwegian Bokmål: piece

    • ? Romanian: pies?
    • ? Russian: ?????? (p?jésa)
      • ? Kazakh: ????? (p?esa)
    • ? Swedish: pjäs
    • ? Yiddish: ??????? (pyese)
  • Norman: pièche (Jersey)
• Walloon: pîce
• ? Middle English: pece, pese, pesse, peace, pease, peise, pice, pise, piece, piese, pecche
  • English: piece
    • Sranan Tongo: pisi
    • ? Finnish: biisi
    • ? Japanese: ??? (p?su)
  • Yola: peece
  • ? Middle Irish: pissa
    • Irish: píosa
  • ? Scottish Gaelic: pìos

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??.t?s?/

Noun

piece m inan

1. inflection of piec:
   1. nominative plural
   2. accusative plural
   3. vocative plural

English

Alternative forms

• perticular (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English particuler, from Anglo-Norman particuler, Middle French particuler, particulier, from Late Latin particularis (“partial; separate, individual”), from Latin particula (“(small) part”). Equivalent to particle +? -ar. Compare particle.

Pronunciation

• (rhotic) IPA^(key): /p??t?kj?l?/
• (non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /p??t?kj?l?/
• (US, rhotic, r-dissimilation) IPA^(key): /p??t?kj?l?/
• Hyphenation: par?tic?u?lar
• Rhymes: -?kj?l?(?)

Adjective

particular (comparative more particular, superlative most particular) (also non-comparable)

1. (obsolete) Pertaining only to a part of something; partial.
2. Specific; discrete; concrete.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:specific

   Antonym: general
3. Specialised; characteristic of a specific person or thing.

   Synonyms: optimized, specialistic

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Gardens

     wheresoever one plant draweth such a particular juice out of the earth

4. (obsolete) Known only to an individual person or group; confidential.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, King Lear, V.1:

     or these domesticke and particular broiles, Are not the question heere.

5. Distinguished in some way; special (often in negative constructions).

6. (comparable) Of a person, concerned with, or attentive to, details; fastidious.

   Synonyms: minute, precise, fastidious; see also Thesaurus:fastidious
7. Concerned with, or attentive to, details; minute; circumstantial; precise.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:meticulous

8. (law) Containing a part only; limited.

9. (law) Holding a particular estate.
10. (logic) Forming a part of a genus; relatively limited in extension; affirmed or denied of a part of a subject.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• particular in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Noun

particular (plural particulars)

1. A small individual part of something larger; a detail, a point. [from 15th c.]
2. (obsolete) A person's own individual case. [16th-19th c.]
   • 1658, Henry Hammond, Whole Duty of Man

     temporal blessings, whether such as concern the public […] or such as concern our particular

3. (now philosophy, chiefly in plural) A particular case; an individual thing as opposed to a whole class. (Opposed to generals, universals.) [from 17th c.]

Related terms

• universal
• for one's particular

Translations

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin particularis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /p??.ti.ku?la/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /p?r.ti.ku?la/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /pa?.ti.ku?la?/

Adjective

particular (masculine and feminine plural particulars)

1. private
2. particular

Derived terms

• particularment

Related terms

• partícula
• particularitat

Further reading

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

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin particul?ris, corresponding to partícula +? -ar.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /p??.ti.ku.?la?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pa?.?t??i.ku.?la?/, [p??.?t??i.k?.?l?ä?]
• Hyphenation: par?ti?cu?lar

Adjective

particular m or f (plural particulares, comparable)

1. private (concerning, accessible or belonging to an individual person or group)
2. private (not belonging to the government)

   Synonym: privado

   Antonym: público

3. particular; specific

   Synonym: específico

4. particular; distinguished; exceptional

   Synonym: excepcional

Inflection

Derived terms

• em particular

Related terms

• partícula

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin particul?ris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa?tiku?la?/, [pa?.t?i.ku?la?]

Adjective

particular (plural particulares)

1. specific, particular

   Synonyms: concreto, específico

2. peculiar, strange

   Synonyms: raro, extraño

3. personal

   Synonym: íntimo

4. private

   Synonym: privado

Related terms

• partícula

Noun

particular m (plural particulares)

1. individual, private citizen

Further reading

• “particular” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.