different between sheer vs patent

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????/
• (US) IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Homophone: shear

Etymology 1

From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English s??re; merged with Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English s??r (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”) and Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *sk?riz (“pure, sheer”) and *skairiz, from Proto-Indo-European *s??y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”).

Cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), Dutch schier (“almost”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (skeirs, “clear, lucid”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hir (“grace, beauty; goodwill”).

Adjective

sheer (comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)

1. (textiles) Very thin or transparent.

2. (obsolete) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, scene ii:

     If she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying’st knave in Christendom.

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, King Richard the Second, Act V, scene iii:

     Thou sheer, immaculate and silver fountain, / From when this stream through muddy passages / Hath held his current and defiled himself!

3. (by extension) Downright; complete; pure.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     Cycling's complex etiquette contains an unwritten rule that riders in contention for a race win should not be penalised for sheer misfortune.

4. Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
   • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[4]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):

     Perhaps as startling as the sheer toll was the devastation to some of the state’s well-known locales. Boardwalks along the beach in Seaside Heights, Belmar and other towns on the Jersey Shore were blown away. Amusement parks, arcades and restaurants all but vanished. Bridges to barrier islands buckled, preventing residents from even inspecting the damage to their property.

5. Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.

Synonyms

• (very thin or transparent): diaphanous, see-through, thin
• (pure, unmixed): pure, undiluted
• (downright, complete): downright, mere (obsolete), pure, unmitigated
• (straight up and down): perpendicular, steep, vertical

Derived terms

• sheerly
• sheerness
• sheer-to-waist

Translations

Adverb

sheer (comparative more sheer, superlative most sheer)

1. (archaic) Clean; quite; at once.

Translations

Noun

sheer (plural sheers)

1. A sheer curtain or fabric.

Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps from Dutch scheren (“to move aside, skim”); see also shear.

Noun

sheer (plural sheers)

1. (nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
2. (nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.

Translations

Verb

sheer (third-person singular simple present sheers, present participle sheering, simple past and past participle sheered)

1. (chiefly nautical) To swerve from a course.
2. (obsolete) To shear.

   • So thick, our navy scarce could sheer their way

Translations

Further reading

• sheer at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “sheer”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

References

Anagrams

• Esher, Herse, Rhees, heers, here's, heres, herse

Burushaski

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?e??]

Noun

sheer (plural sheerisho)

1. lion

References

Sadaf Munshi (2015) , “Word Lists”, in Burushaski Language Documentation Project?^[5].

Middle English

Noun

sheer

1. Alternative form of shere

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