different between presence vs revenant

English

Alternative forms

• præsence (archaic)

Etymology

Through Old French presence, from Latin praesentia (“a being present”), from praesentem. Displaced native Old English andweardnes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??z?ns/
• Hyphenation: pres?ence

Noun

presence (countable and uncountable, plural presences)

1. The fact or condition of being present, or of being within sight or call, or at hand.

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.

2. The part of space within one's immediate vicinity.

3. A quality of poise and effectiveness that enables a performer to achieve a close relationship with their audience.
4. A quality that sets an individual out from others; a quality that makes them noticed and/or admired even if they are not speaking or performing.

5. Something (as a spirit) felt or believed to be present.

6. A company's business activity in a particular market. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. (archaic) An assembly of great persons.
8. The state of being closely focused on the here and now, not distracted by irrelevant thoughts. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
9. (audio) Synonym of room tone

Antonyms

• absence

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

presence (third-person singular simple present presences, present participle presencing, simple past and past participle presenced)

1. (philosophy, transitive, intransitive) To make or become present.
   • 1985, David Edward Shaner, The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism: A Phenomenological Study of K?kai and D?gen, page 59,

     Within a completely neutral horizon, the primordial continuous stream of experience is presenced without interruption. As this time, the past and future have no meaning apart from the now in which they are presenced.

   • 1998, H. Peter Steeves, Founding Community: A Phenomenological-Ethical Inquiry, page 59,

     Just as the bread and butter can be presenced as more than just the bread and the butter, so baking a loaf of bread can be more than just the baking, the baker, and the bread.

   • 2005, James Phillips, Heidegger's Volk: Between National Socialism and Poetry, Stanford University Press, ?ISBN (paperback), page 118,

     From the overtaxing of the regime's paranoiac classifications and monitoring of the social field, Heidegger was to await in vain the presencing of that which is present, the revelation of the Being of beings in its precedence to governmental control.

Related terms

• present
• presentation
• omnipresence

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

19th century. From French revenant, the present participle of revenir (“to return”). Compare revenue.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???v?n?nt/

Noun

revenant (plural revenants)

1. Someone who returns from a long absence.
   • 1886, Mrs Lynn Linton, Paston Carew viii, as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, volume 8 part 1, published 1914, page 595:

     They would not visit this undesirable revenant with his insolent wealth and discreditable origin.

   • 1895 August 31, Daily News 4/7, as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary, volume 8 part 1, published 1914, page 595:

     The undergraduates, our fogey revenant observes, look much as they did.., in outward aspect.

   • 2008, Andrew Cusack, Wanderer in 19th-Century German Literature, Camden House, ?ISBN, page 91:

     From this moment on, the hero's fate is sealed; an attempt to reestablish himself in human society, though initially successful, inevitably fails. The stone tablet exerts an invincible fascination over the revenant, who becomes so withdrawn that his father implores him: […]

2. A person or thing reborn.
   • 2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin 2009, page 184:

     Sometimes […] semi-identifications could be made on the basis of names. Henry VII's son Arthur was hailed as a revenant in this way.

3. A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.
   • 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     For granting even that Religion were dead; that it had died, half-centuries ago, with unutterable Dubois; or emigrated lately, to Alsace, with Necklace-Cardinal Rohan; or that it now walked as goblin revenant with Bishop Talleyrand of Autun; yet does not the Shadow of Religion, the Cant of Religion, still linger?

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:ghost

Translations

Adjective

revenant (comparative more revenant, superlative most revenant)

1. Returning.
   • 1988, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, Random House (2008), page 134:

     On clear nights when the moon was full, she waited for its shining revenant ghost.

Anagrams

• Tavenner, venerant

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.v(?).n??/

Verb

revenant

1. present participle of revenir

Noun

revenant m (plural revenants, feminine revenante)

1. A supernatural being that returns from the dead; a zombie or ghost.
2. A person who returns after a long absence

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• énervant, vénérant