different between plight vs cause
plight
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: pl?t, IPA(key): /pla?t/
- Rhymes: -a?t
Etymology 1
From Middle English plit (“fold, wrinkle, bad situation”), conflation of Middle English pliht, plight (“risky promise, peril”) (from Old English pliht "danger, risk") and Anglo-Norman plit, plyte (“fold, condition”), from Old French pleit (“condition, manner of folding”) (from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum (“fold”)).
Noun
plight (plural plights)
- A dire or unfortunate situation. [from 14th c.]
- 2005, Lesley Brown, translating Plato, Sophist, 243c:
- Though we say we are quite clear about it and understand when someone uses the expression, unlike that other expression, maybe we're in the same plight with regard to them both.
- 2005, Lesley Brown, translating Plato, Sophist, 243c:
- (now rare) A (neutral) condition or state. [from 14th c.]
- (obsolete) Good health. [14th–19th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:
- All wayes shee sought him to restore to plight, / With herbs, with charms, with counsel, and with teares […].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English plight (“risk, danger”), from Old English pliht (“peril, risk, danger, damage, plight”), from Proto-West Germanic *plihti (“care, responsibility, duty”). A suffixed form of the root represented by Old English pleoh (“risk, danger, hurt, peril"; also "responsibility”) and pl?on (“to endanger, risk”). Akin to Old English plihtan (“to endanger, compromise”). Cognate with Scots plicht (“responsibility, plight”), Dutch plicht, Low German plicht (“duty”), German Pflicht (“duty”), Danish pligt (“duty”), Yiddish ??????? (flikht). More at pledge.
Noun
plight (plural plights)
- (now chiefly dialectal) Responsibility for ensuing consequences; risk; danger; peril.
- (now chiefly dialectal) An instance of danger or peril; a dangerous moment or situation.
- (now chiefly dialectal) Blame; culpability; fault; wrong-doing; sin; crime.
- (now chiefly dialectal) One's office; duty; charge.
- (archaic) That which is exposed to risk; that which is plighted or pledged; security; a gage; a pledge.
Derived terms
- plightful
- plightly
Translations
Verb
plight (third-person singular simple present plights, present participle plighting, simple past and past participle plighted)
- (transitive, now rare) To expose to risk; to pledge.
- (transitive) Specifically, to pledge (one's troth etc.) as part of a marriage ceremony.
- (reflexive) To promise (oneself) to someone, or to do something.
- 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 226:
- I ask what I have done to deserve it, one daughter hobnobbing with radicals and the other planning to plight herself to a criminal.
- 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 226:
Derived terms
- plighter
Etymology 3
From Middle English plyghten, ply?ten, pley?ten, pleiten, pliten, from the noun (see below).
Verb
plight (third-person singular simple present plights, present participle plighting, simple past and past participle plighted)
- (obsolete) To weave; to braid; to fold; to plait.
Etymology 4
From Middle English pli?t, plight, plyt, pleit, from Anglo-Norman pleit (“pleat, fold”). More at plait.
Noun
plight (plural plights)
- (obsolete) A network; a plait; a fold; rarely a garment.
Further reading
- Plight in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
plight From the web:
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cause
English
Etymology
From Middle English cause, borrowed from Old French cause (“a cause, a thing”), from Latin causa (“reason, sake, cause”), in Middle English also "a thing". Origin uncertain. See accuse, excuse, recuse, ruse. Displaced native Middle English sake (“cause, reason”) (from Old English sacu (“cause”)), Middle English andweorc, andwork (“matter, cause”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, thing, cause”)).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôz, IPA(key): /k??z/, [k?o?z?]
- (General American) IPA(key): /k?z/, [k???z?]
- Rhymes: -??z
- Homophones: caws, 'cause; cores (non-rhotic dialects)
Noun
cause (countable and uncountable, plural causes)
- (countable, often with of, typically of adverse results) The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cause
- (uncountable, especially with for and a bare noun) Sufficient reason for a state, as of emotion.
- Synonyms: grounds, justification
- (countable) A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends.
- 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord
- The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:goal
- 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord
- (obsolete) Sake; interest; advantage.
- I did it not for his cause.
- (countable, obsolete) Any subject of discussion or debate; a matter; an affair.
- (countable, law) A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- effect
Verb
cause (third-person singular simple present causes, present participle causing, simple past and past participle caused)
- (transitive) To set off an event or action.
- Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
- (ditransitive) To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority.
- I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days.
- To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
Derived terms
- causation
- causer
Translations
Further reading
- cause at OneLook Dictionary Search
- cause in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- cause in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams
- -sauce, sauce
Asturian
Verb
cause
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive of causar
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /koz/
- Homophones: causent, causes
Etymology 1
From Old French cause, borrowed from Classical Latin causa. Compare chose, an inherited doublet.
Noun
cause f (plural causes)
- cause
- Antonym: conséquence
- (law) case (a legal proceeding)
Derived terms
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the main entry.
Verb
cause
- inflection of causer:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading
- “cause” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Anagrams
- sauce, sceau
Italian
Noun
cause f pl
- plural of causa
Middle English
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French cause.
Noun
cause (plural causes)
- cause
- 14th Century, Chaucer, General Prologue
- He knew the cause of everich maladye
- He knew the cause of every illness
- He knew the cause of everich maladye
- 14th Century, Chaucer, General Prologue
Descendants
- English: cause
Norman
Etymology
From Old French cause, borrowed from Latin causa.
Noun
cause f (plural causes)
- (Jersey, law) case
Old French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin causa, whence the inherited chose.
Noun
cause f (oblique plural causes, nominative singular cause, nominative plural causes)
- cause
Descendants
- Middle English: cause
- English: cause
- Middle French: cause
- French: cause
- Norman: cause
Portuguese
Verb
cause
- first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of causar
- third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of causar
- third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of causar
- third-person singular (você) negative imperative of causar
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?kause/, [?kau?.se]
Verb
cause
- Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of causar.
- First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of causar.
- Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of causar.
- Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of causar.
cause From the web:
- what causes hiccups
- what causes high blood pressure
- what causes kidney stones
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