different between report vs missive

English

Etymology

From Middle English reporten, from Anglo-Norman reporter, Middle French reporter, and their source, Latin report?re (“to carry back, return, remit, refer”), from re- + port?re.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /???p??t/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???p??t/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /???po?t/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /???po(?)?t/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /???po?t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t

Verb

report (third-person singular simple present reports, present participle reporting, simple past and past participle reported)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To relate details of (an event or incident); to recount, describe (something). [from 15th c.]
2. (transitive) To repeat (something one has heard), to retell; to pass on, convey (a message, information etc.). [from 15^thc.]
3. (obsolete, reflexive) To take oneself (to someone or something) for guidance or support; to appeal. [15^th-18^thc.]
4. (formal, transitive) To notify someone of (particular intelligence, suspicions, illegality, misconduct etc.); to make notification to relevant authorities; to submit a formal report of. [from 15^thc.]

5. (transitive) To make a formal statement, especially of complaint, about (someone). [from 19^thc.]

6. (intransitive) To show up or appear at an appointed time; to present oneself. [from 19^thc.]
7. (transitive, intransitive) To write news reports (for); to cover as a journalist or reporter. [from 19^thc.]
   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     In January, the country’s weather agency sent aircraft to release chemicals into clouds over the Yellow Sea, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

8. (intransitive) To be accountable to or subordinate to (someone) in a hierarchy; to receive orders from (someone); to give official updates to (someone who is above oneself in a hierarchy).

   Now that I've been promoted, I report to Benjamin, whom I loathe.

9. (politics, dated) To return or present as the result of an examination or consideration of any matter officially referred.

10. To take minutes of (a speech, the doings of a public body, etc.); to write down from the lips of a speaker.
11. (obsolete) To refer.
    • 1639, Thomas Fuller, The Historie of the Holy Warre

      Baldwin, his son, […] succeeded his father; so like unto him that we report the reader to the character of King Almerick, and will spare the repeating his description.

12. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete, rare) To return or repeat, as sound; to echo.

Derived terms

• aforereported
• reporter
• underreport
• unreported

Translations

Noun

report (plural reports)

1. A piece of information describing, or an account of certain events given or presented to someone, with the most common adpositions being by (referring to creator of the report) and on (referring to the subject).
2. Reputation.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 36:

     I love thee in such sort / As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

3. (firearms) The sharp, loud sound from a gun or explosion.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 34

     While their masters, the mates, seemed afraid of the sound of the hinges of their own jaws, the harpooneers chewed their food with such a relish that there was a report to it.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:

     […] a pistol-shot, flash and report, came from the hedge-side.
4. An employee whose position in a corporate hierarchy is below that of a particular manager.

   Synonym: subordinate

Derived terms

• (piece of information): on report, report card
• (employee): direct report, indirect report

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ???? (rep?to), ???? (rip?to)

Translations

Further reading

• Report on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Report in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Perrot, Porter, perrot, porret, porter, pretor, proter, troper

French

Etymology

deverbal of reporter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.p??/

Noun

report m (plural reports)

1. postponement
2. deferment

Synonyms

• ajournement

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• porter

English

Etymology

15th Century; from Medieval Latin missivus, from mittere (“to send”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?m?s?v/

Noun

missive (plural missives)

1. (formal) A written message; a letter, note or memo.
   • 2008, Claire Armistead, The Guardian, 25 Oct 2008:

     The Madonna letters, which are interspersed with more personal missives in this curious epistolary memoir, accumulate into a rap about the downsides of celebrity - the problems of ageing, of invaded privacy, of becoming vain and impetuously adopting children from other continents.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 71:

     "Curses throttle thee!" yelled Ahab. "Captain Mayhew, stand by now to receive it"; and taking the fatal missive from Starbuck's hands, he caught it in the slit of the pole, and reached it over towards the boat.

2. (in the plural, Scotland, law) Letters sent between two parties in which one makes an offer and the other accepts it.
3. (obsolete) One who is sent; a messenger.
   • c. 1606: Macbeth by Shakespeare

     Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the King, who all hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor,’ by which title these Weird Sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail king that shalt be.’

Translations

Adjective

missive (not comparable)

1. Specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent.

   a letter missive

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

2. (obsolete) Serving as a missile; intended to be thrown.
   • 1700, John Dryden, Cymon And Iphigenia

     The missive weapons fly.

Related terms

• See mission for terms etymologically related to send

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “missive”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

French

Pronunciation

Noun

missive f (plural missives)

1. missive

Italian

Noun

missive f

1. plural of missiva