different between plain vs patent

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: pl?n, IPA^(key): /ple?n/, [p?l?e?n]
• Rhymes: -e?n
• Homophone: plane

Etymology 1

From Middle English pleyn, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleyn, playn, Middle French plain, plein, and Old French plain, from Latin pl?nus (“flat, even, level, plain”).

Alternative forms

• plaine (obsolete)

Adjective

plain (comparative plainer, superlative plainest)

1. (now rare, regional) Flat, level. [from 14th c.]

   • The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

2. Simple.
   1. Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished. [from 14th c.]
   2. Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.

   3. Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary. [from 16th c.]
      • 1654, Henry Hammond, Of Fundamentals

        plain yet pious Christians

      • 1861, Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress in Special Session, July 4th

        the plain people

   4. (of food) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras. [from 17th c.]

   5. (computing) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text). [from 20th c.]
3. Obvious.
   1. Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable. [from 14th c.]
      • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XV, Practical — Devotional

        In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, this Abbot, it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.

   2. Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier). [from 14th c.]

4. Open.
   1. Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt. [from 14th c.]
      • The Quaker was no sooner assured by this fellow of the birth and low fortune of Jones, than all compassion for him vanished; and the honest plain man went home fired with no less indignation than a duke would have felt at receiving an affront from such a person.

   2. Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
      • 1711, Henry Felton, Dissertation on Reading the Classics

        Our troops beat an army in plain fight.

5. Not unusually beautiful; unattractive. [from 17th c.]

6. (card games) Not a trump.

Synonyms

• (lacking adornment or ornamentation): no-frills, simple, unadorned, unseasoned; see also Thesaurus:bare-bones
• (of just one colour): monochrome
• (not exceptional): normal, ordinary
• (obvious): blatant, ostensible; see also Thesaurus:obvious or Thesaurus:explicit
• (intensifier): consarn, darned, stinking; see also Thesaurus:damned
• (honest and without deception): frank, sincere; see also Thesaurus:honest

Antonyms

• bells and whistles
• decorative
• exotic
• fancy
• ornate

Derived terms

Related terms

• plane
• planar

Translations

Adverb

plain (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Simply.

   It was just plain stupid.

   I plain forgot.

2. (archaic) Plainly; distinctly.

   Tell me plain: do you love me or no?

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman plainer, pleiner, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French pleindre, plaindre, from Latin plangere, present active infinitive of plang?.

Alternative forms

• plein

Noun

plain (plural plains)

1. (rare, poetic) A lamentation.
   • 1815, Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Isles, Canto IV, part IX

     The warrior-threat, the infant's plain,
     The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

Verb

plain (third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (reflexive, obsolete) To complain. [13th–19th c.]
   • c. 1390, William Landland, Piers Plowman, Prologue:

     Persones and parisch prestes · pleyned hem to þe bischop / Þat here parisshes were pore · sith þe pestilence tyme […].

2. (transitive, intransitive, now rare, poetic) To lament, bewail. [from 14th c.]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir J. Harrington to this entry?)

   • c. 1600, Joseph Hall, Satires

     Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set
     Her husband's rusty iron corselet;
     Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest,
     That never plain'd of his uneasy nest.

   • 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, "XXV", lines 5–9

     Then came I crying, and to-day, / With heavier cause to plain, / Depart I into death away, / Not to be born again.

Related terms

Etymology 3

From Old French plain, from Latin pl?num (“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from pl?nus (“level, even, flat”). Doublet of llano, piano, and plane.

Noun

plain (plural plains)

1. An expanse of land with relatively low relief, usually exclusive of forests, deserts, and wastelands.
   • 1961, J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato. In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.

     For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains, in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”

   Synonyms: flatland, grassland

   Hypernyms: land, terrain

   Hyponyms: prairie, steppe

2. (archaic) Synonym of field in reference to a battlefield.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Arbuthnot to this entry?)
3. (obsolete) Alternative spelling of plane: a flat geometric field.

Usage notes

• As with grassland(s), flatland(s), &c., plains can function as the plural of plain (There are ten principal low plains on Mars) or as its synonym (She lives in the plains), with a vague sense of greater expansiveness.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

plain (third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To level; to raze; to make plain or even on the surface.
   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,^[1]

     Frownst thou thereat aspiring Lancaster,
     The sworde shall plane the furrowes of thy browes,

   • 1612, George Wither, Prince Henrie’s Obsequies, Elegy 24, in Egerton Brydges (editor), Restituta, Volume I, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1814, p. 399,^[2]

     Though kept by Rome’s and Mahomet’s chiefe powers;
     They should not long detain him there in thrall:
     We would rake Europe rather, plain the East;
     Dispeople the whole Earth before the doome:

2. (obsolete, transitive) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Act III, Prologue,^[3]

     What’s dumb in show, I’ll plain with speech.

Anagrams

• Aplin, Lipan, Palin, Pinal, in lap, lapin, plani-

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin pl?nus. Compare Italian pieno, Romansch plain, Romanian plin, French plein.

Adjective

plain (feminine plaina)

1. full

French

Etymology

From Old French plain, from Latin pl?nus. Doublet of plan and piano.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl??/
• Homophones: plains, plein, pleins

Adjective

plain (feminine singular plaine, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plaines)

1. (obsolete) plane

Derived terms

• plain-pied
• plain-chant

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• alpin, lapin

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French plain, from Latin pl?nus.

Adjective

plain m (feminine singular plaine, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plaines)

1. full (not empty)

Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin pl?nus.

Adjective

plain m (feminine plaine)

1. full (not empty)
   • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     De tant come ele l'ot veü,

     Que plains estoit de felenie.

     As she had seen

     He was full of evil

   Antonym: vuit

Descendants

• French: plein

Etymology 2

From Latin pl?num (“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from pl?nus (“level, even, flat”).

Noun

plain m (oblique plural plainz, nominative singular plainz, nominative plural plain)

1. plain (flat area)

Synonyms

• plaine

Descendants

• ? Dutch: plein
• ? Middle English:
  • English: plain
  • Scots: plain

Etymology 3

From Latin pl?nus (“level, even, flat”).

Adjective

plain m (oblique and nominative feminine singular plaine)

1. flat (not even or mountainous)

Romansch

Alternative forms

• plein (Sursilvan)
• plagn (Sutsilvan, Surmiran)

Etymology

From Latin pl?nus.

Adjective

plain m (feminine singular plaina, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plainas)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader) full

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?pe?t?nt/, /?pæ-/
• (General American) enPR: p?t??nt, p?t??nt, IPA^(key): /?pæt?nt/, [p?æ??n?t], /?pe?-/, [p?e??-]
• Hyphenation: pa?tent

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English patent (“document granting an office, property, right, title, etc.; document granting permission, licence; papal indulgence, pardon”) [and other forms], which is either:

• a clipping of lettre patent, lettres patente, lettres patentes [and other forms]; or
• directly from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (modern French patent), a clipping of Anglo-Norman lettres patentes, Middle French lettres patentes, lettre patente, and Old French patentes lettres (“document granting an office, privilege, right, etc., or making a decree”) (compare Late Latin patens, littera patens, litterae patentes).

For the derivation of Anglo-Norman and Middle French patente (adjective) in lettre patente, see etymology 2 below.

The verb is derived from the noun.

Noun

patent (countable and uncountable, plural patents)

1. (law)
   1. An official document granting an appointment, privilege, or right, or some property or title; letters patent.
   2. (specifically)
      1. (originally) A grant of a monopoly over the manufacture, sale, and use of goods.
      2. A declaration issued by a government agency that the inventor of a new invention has the sole privilege of making, selling, or using the claimed invention for a specified period.
   3. (US, historical) A specific grant of ownership of a piece of real property; a land patent.
2. (by extension) A product in respect of which a patent (sense 1.2.2) has been obtained.
3. (uncountable) Short for patent leather (“a varnished, high-gloss leather typically used for accessories and shoes”).
4. (figuratively)
   1. A licence or (formal) permission to do something.
   2. A characteristic or quality that one possesses; in particular (hyperbolic) as if exclusively; a monopoly.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

patent (third-person singular simple present patents, present participle patenting, simple past and past participle patented)

1. (transitive, law)
   1. To (successfully) register (a new invention) with a government agency to obtain the sole privilege of its manufacture, sale, and use for a specified period.
   2. (US, historical) To obtain (over a piece of real property) a specific grant of ownership.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To be closely associated or identified with (something); to monopolize.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English patent, patente (“wide open; clear, unobstructed; unlimited; of a document: available for public inspection”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Middle French patent (modern French patent), and directly from their etymon Latin pat?ns (“open; accessible, passable; evident, manifest; exposed, vulnerable”), the present active participle of pate? (“to be open; to be accessible, attainable; to be exposed, vulnerable; of frontiers or land: to extent, increase”), from Proto-Indo-European *peth?- (“to spread out; to fly”).

Adjective

patent (comparative more patent, superlative most patent)

1. Conspicuous; open; unconcealed.

   Synonym: overt

   1. (baking) Of flour: fine, and consisting mostly of the inner part of the endosperm of the grain from which it is milled.
   2. (medicine) Open, unobstructed; specifically, especially of the ductus arteriosus or foramen ovale in the heart, having not closed as would have happened in normal development.

   3. (medicine, veterinary medicine) Of an infection: in the phase when the organism causing it can be detected by clinical tests.
2. Explicit and obvious.

   Synonyms: express, monosemous, unambiguous; see also Thesaurus:explicit, Thesaurus:obvious
3. (archaic)
   1. Especially of a document conferring some privilege or right: open to public perusal or use.

   2. Appointed or conferred by letters patent.
4. (botany) Of a branch, leaf, etc.: outspread; also, spreading at right angles to the axis.
5. (law) Protected by a legal patent.

   Synonym: patented
6. (by extension, figuratively) To which someone has, or seems to have, a claim or an exclusive claim; also, inventive or particularly suited for.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• patent on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Patten, patten, pét-nat

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /p??tent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /p??ten/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /pa?tent/

Noun

patent m (plural patents)

1. patent

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?pat?nt]

Noun

patent m

1. patent (declaration issued by a government to an inventor)

Derived terms

• patentový

Danish

Noun

patent n (singular definite patentet, plural indefinite patenter)

1. patent

Declension

Related terms

References

• “patent” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa??t?nt/
• Hyphenation: pa?tent
• Rhymes: -?nt

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French patente, from lettres patentes (“letter in which a privilege is granted”), from Latin litterae patentes.

Noun

patent n (plural patenten, diminutive patentje n)

1. patent [from 16th c.]

   Synonym: octrooi

Derived terms

• patentrecht

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: paten

Etymology 2

Borrowed from German patent, originating in student slang. Related to etymology 1.

Adjective

patent (comparative patenter, superlative patentst)

1. excellent, exquisite [from mid 19th c.]

   Synonyms: geweldig, voortreffelijk

Inflection

German

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Adjective

patent (comparative patenter, superlative am patentesten)

1. clever
2. ingenious

Declension

Further reading

• “patent” in Duden online

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?pa.tent/, [?pät??n?t?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?pa.tent/, [?p??t??n?t?]

Verb

patent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of pate?

Middle English

Etymology 1

From a short form of lettres patentes, from Anglo-Norman lettre patente (“open letter”), from Latin littera patens.

Alternative forms

• patente, patentt

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa?t?nt/, /?pat?nt/

Noun

patent (plural patentes)

1. A letter conferring a privilege or status.
2. Such a privilege or status conferred.
3. (rare) A letter conferring other advantages.

Descendants

• English: patent (noun)

References

• “patent(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Middle French patent, from Old French, from Latin pat?ns.

Alternative forms

• patente

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa?t?nt/, /?pat?nt/

Adjective

patent

1. (rare) open, unconfined, unrestricted

Descendants

• English: patent (adjective)

References

• “patent(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

Noun

patent

1. Alternative form of patene

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Short form of Anglo-Norman lettre patente.

Noun

patent n (definite singular patentet, indefinite plural patent or patenter, definite plural patenta or patentene)

1. patent

Related terms

• patentere

References

• “patent” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Short form of Anglo-Norman lettre patente.

Noun

patent n (definite singular patentet, indefinite plural patent, definite plural patenta)

1. patent

References

• “patent” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

From French patente, from Latin pat?ns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pa.t?nt/

Noun

patent m inan

1. patent (official declaration that someone is the inventor of something)

Declension

Further reading

• patent in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• patent in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

From French patent.

Adjective

patent m or n (feminine singular patent?, masculine plural paten?i, feminine and neuter plural patente)

1. patent

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?tent/
• Hyphenation: pa?tent

Noun

pàtent m (Cyrillic spelling ???????)

1. patent (official declaration that someone is the inventor of something)

Declension

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa?t?nt/

Noun

patent n

1. patent

Declension

Related terms

Anagrams

• patten