different between remittent vs remission

English

Etymology

From Latin remittent-, present participle of remitt?.

Adjective

remittent (comparative more remittent, superlative most remittent)

1. Alternately increasing and decreasing in severity or intensity.
   • 1761, Hugh Smith, The Family Physician, London, p. 3, footnote,^[1]

     A remittent fever is when at certain periods the fever is more violent than at others, but the patient never intirely free from it.

   • 1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, Volume 1, p. 176,^[2]

     Yet nine years elapsed before it [the dictionary] saw the light. His throes in bringing it forth had been severe and remittent, and at last we may almost conclude that the Caesarian operation was performed by the knife of Churchill, whose upbraiding satire, I dare say, made Johnson’s friends urge him to dispatch.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter 21,^[3]

     I bethought myself to go upstairs and see how the dying woman sped, who lay there almost unheeded: the very servants paid her but a remittent attention: the hired nurse, being little looked after, would slip out of the room whenever she could.

   • 1893, Lew Wallace, The Prince of India, or Why Constantinople Fell, New York: Harper, Volume 2, Book 6, Chapter 9, p. 404,^[4]

     The noise of the conflict, the shouting and roar of an uncounted multitude of men in the heat and fury of combat, not to more than mention the evidences of the conflict—arrows, bolts, and stones in overflight and falling in remittent showers—would have dispersed them in ordinary mood; but they were under protection—the Madonna was leading them—to be afraid was to deny her saving grace.

   • 1895, Arthur Machen, The Three Impostors, London: John Lane, “Adventure of the Missing Brother,” p. 97,^[5]

     The evening was a little chilly, and a fire of logs had been lighted in the study where we were, and the remittent flame and the glow on the walls reminded me of the old days.

2. (rare) Of or pertaining to remission of the severity of symptoms.
   • 1875, Charlotte Riddell, The Uninhabited House, Chapter 14,^[6]

     […] the long, long fever of life, which with him never knew a remittent moment, had robbed him of that which every man has a right to expect, some pleasure in the course of his existence.

Usage notes

Something that is intermittent stops and starts again, whereas something that is remittent is continuous but varies in intensity.

Noun

remittent (uncountable)

1. A remittent fever.
   • 1872, Henry Morton Stanley, How I Found Livingstone, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, Chapter 15, p. 598,^[7]

     If you would have died from fever, you would have died at Ujiji when you had that severe attack of remittent.

Latin

Verb

remittent

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English remissioun (“release from duty; freeing of captives; mercy, pardon, respite; forgiveness; release from or reduction of penances; reduction in intensity (of a quality, symptom, etc.); transfer of property, quitclaim; legal opinion or submission; reference, cross-reference”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman remission, remissione, remissioun, remissiun and Middle French, Old French remission (“forgiveness of sin; pardoning of an offence; postponement; cessation, suspension; diminishing or weakening of something; reduction of debt; reduction in intensity of a disease or symptom”) (modern French rémission), and their etymon Late Latin remissi? (“forgiveness; pardon of sins”), Latin remissi? (“release; sending back; easing off, relaxing, softening; reduction of debt; reduction in intensity of a disease or symptom”), from remitt? (“to remit, send back; to diminish; to relax; to do without, forego”) + -si?. Remitt? is derived from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + mitt? (“to cause to go; to send; to discharge, emit, let go, release; to throw; to extend, reach out; to announce, tell; to produce, yield; to attend, escort, guide; to dismiss, disregard; to end”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meyth?- (“to change, exchange; to change places, go past”) or *(s)meyt- (“to throw”)).

The English word is cognate with Catalan remissió, Italian remissioni, remissione (“remission; withdrawal of legal action; compliance, submission”), Old Occitan remessió, Portuguese remisson, remissão (“pardon; remission”), Spanish remisión (“remission”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???m??(?)n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???m??(?)n/
• Rhymes: -???n
• Hyphenation: re?mis?sion

Noun

remission (countable and uncountable, plural remissions)

1. A pardon of a sin; (chiefly historical, also figuratively) the forgiveness of an offence, or relinquishment of a (legal) claim or a debt.

   Synonym: acceptilation

   Antonym: irremission
2. A lessening of amount due, as in either money or work, or intensity of a thing.
   1. (law) A reduction or cancellation of the penalty for a criminal offence; in particular, the reduction of a prison sentence as a recognition of the prisoner's good behaviour.

      Synonym: remitment
   2. (medicine) An abatement or lessening of the manifestations of a disease; a period where the symptoms of a disease are absent.

      Synonyms: anesis, remittence
3. An act of remitting, returning, or sending back.
   1. (law) A referral of a case back to another (especially a lower or inferior) court of law; a remand, a remittal.
4. (spectroscopy) Reflection or scattering of light by a material; reemission.

Usage notes

Not to be confused with reemission.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• (medicine): relapse

References

Further reading

• remission (medicine) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• remission (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• minorises, missioner, oneirisms

Finnish

Noun

remission

1. Genitive singular form of remissio.

Interlingua

Noun

remission (plural remissiones)

1. remission

Old French

Alternative forms

• remissiun (Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin remissio.

Noun

remission f (oblique plural remissions, nominative singular remission, nominative plural remissions)

1. remission (pardon of a sin; the forgiveness of an offense)

Descendants

• ? English: remission
• French: rémission

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (remission, supplement)
• remissiun on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub