different between sigh vs content

English

Etymology

From Middle English sihen, from Old English s?can. (The OE infinitive would have given ME forms with /t?/ or /k/, which are both attested, so the /h/ form is probably a back-formation from the preterite sihte.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sa?/
• Rhymes: -a?
• Homophones: sie, sai, psi, xi, scye, Si, Sy, Cy

Verb

sigh (third-person singular simple present sighs, present participle sighing, simple past and past participle sighed)

1. (intransitive) To inhale a larger quantity of air than usual, and immediately expel it; to make a deep single audible respiration, especially as the result or involuntary expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, frustration, or the like.

2. (intransitive) To lament; to grieve.

   • He sighed deeply in his spirit.

3. (intransitive, transitive) To utter sighs over; to lament or mourn over.
   • 1695, Matthew Prior, An ode presented to the king, on His Majesty's arrival in Holland, after the Queen's death

     Ages to come, and men unborn, / Shall bless her name, and sigh her fate.

4. (intransitive) To experience an emotion associated with sighing.

5. (intransitive) To make a sound like sighing.
   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

     And the coming wind did roar more loud, / And the sails did sigh like sedge.

   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Death of the Old Year

     The winter winds are wearily sighing.

6. (transitive) To exhale (the breath) in sighs.
7. (transitive) To express by sighs; to utter in or with sighs.
   • 1763, John Hoole (translator), Jerusalem Delivered (by Torquato Tasso

     The gentle swain […] sighs back her grief.

Synonyms

• (all): sithe (obsolete)

Translations

Noun

sigh (plural sighs)

1. A deep, prolonged audible inhale and exhale of breath; as when fatigued, frustrated, grieved, or relieved; the act of sighing.
   • 1913, Eleanor Porter, Pollyanna, Chapter 7:

     To Pollyanna the air was all the more stifling after that cool breath of the out of doors; but she did not complain. She only drew a long quivering sigh.

2. Figuratively, a manifestation of grief; a lament.
3. (Cockney rhyming slang) A person who is bored.

Derived terms

• yawn-sigh

Translations

Interjection

sigh

1. An expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, frustration, or the like, often used in casual written contexts.

   Sigh, I'm so bored at work today.

Translations

Anagrams

• Gish, gish

English

Etymology 1

From Middle French content (“satisfied”), from Latin contentus (“contained; satisfied”), past participle of contin?re (“to contain”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?nt?nt', IPA^(key): /k?n?t?nt/
• Hyphenation: con?tent

Adjective

content (comparative more content or contenter, superlative most content)

2. Satisfied, pleased, contented.

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.

Translations

Noun

content (uncountable)

1. Satisfaction, contentment; pleasure.

   They were in a state of sleepy content after supper.

   • 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary, Oxford 2009, p. 51:

     ‘It is very difficult to […] learn to seek content, instead of happiness.’

   • 1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Penguin 2009, p. 287:

     ‘I understand you—upon every other subject, but the only one, my content requires, you are ready to obey me.’

   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2: Act 1, Scene 1

     Such is the fullness of my heart's content.
2. (obsolete) Acquiescence without examination.
   • 1711, Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

     The sense they humbly take upon content.

3. That which contents or satisfies; that which if attained would make one happy.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2: Act 1, Scene 1

     So will I in England work your grace's full content.

4. (Britain, House of Lords) An expression of assent to a bill or motion; an affirmate vote.
5. (Britain, House of Lords, by metonymy) A member who votes in assent.

Derived terms

• contentment
• contentness
• discontent
• malcontent
• to one's heart's content

Interjection

content

1. (archaic) Alright, agreed.

Verb

content (third-person singular simple present contents, present participle contenting, simple past and past participle contented)

2. (transitive) To give contentment or satisfaction; to satisfy; to make happy.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Mark 15:15,^[1]

     And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

   • 1741, Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind, London: James Brackstone, Part I, Chapter 14, p. 194,^[2]

     Do not content yourselves with meer Words and Names, lest your laboured Improvements only amass a heap of unintelligible Phrases, and you feed upon Husks instead of Kernels.

   • 2016, Felicity Cloake, “How to make the perfect cacio e pepe,” The Guardian, 3 November, 2016,^[3]

     Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kenedy recommend rigatoni in the Geometry of Pasta, and Christopher Boswell, the chef behind the Rome Sustainable Food project, prefers wholemeal paccheri or rigatoni in his book Pasta, on the basis that “the flavour of the whole grain is strong enough to stand up to the sharp and salty sheep’s milk cheese” (as I can find neither easily, I have to content myself with brown penne instead).

3. (transitive, obsolete) To satisfy the expectations of; to pay; to requite.
   • c. 1599 William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act III, Scene 2,^[4]

     Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English content (plural contentes, contence), from Latin contentus, past participle of contin?re (“to hold in, contain”), as Etymology 1, above. English apparently developed a substantive form of the adjective, which is not mirrored in Romance languages.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?n.t?nt/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?n.t?nt/
• (US) enPR: k?n't?nt, IPA^(key): /?k?n.t?nt/
• Hyphenation: con?tent

Adjective

content (comparative more content, superlative most content)

1. (obsolete) Contained.

Noun

content (countable and uncountable, plural contents)

1. (uncountable) That which is contained.
2. Subject matter; that which is contained in writing, speech, video, etc.
3. The amount of material contained; contents.

4. (obsolete) Capacity for containing.
5. (mathematics) The n-dimensional space contained by an n-dimensional polytope (called volume in the case of a polyhedron and area in the case of a polygon).
6. (algebra, ring theory, of a polynomial with coefficients in a GCD domain) The greatest common divisor of the coefficients; (of a polynomial with coefficients in an integral domain) the common factor of the coefficients which, when removed, leaves the adjusted coefficients with no common factor that is noninvertible.

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

Further reading

• content in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• content in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Connett

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin contentus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /kon?tent/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /kun?ten/

Adjective

content (feminine contenta, masculine plural contents, feminine plural contentes)

1. content, satisfied, pleased

   Antonym: descontent

Derived terms

• descontent

Further reading

• “content” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “content” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “content” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “content” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology 1

From Middle French content, from Old French, borrowed from Latin contentus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.t??/
• Homophones: comptant, contant, contents

Adjective

content (feminine singular contente, masculine plural contents, feminine plural contentes)

1. content, satisfied, pleased

Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??t/

Verb

content

1. third-person plural present/subjunctive of conter

Further reading

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

Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French content (“content”), compare Haitian Creole kontan.

Verb

content

1. to be contented

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French content, borrowed from Latin contentus.

Adjective

content m (feminine singular contente, masculine plural contens, feminine plural contentes)

1. happy; satisfied; content

Descendants

• French: content

Norman

Alternative forms

• caontent (Guernsey)

Etymology

From Old French, borrowed from Latin contentus (“having been held together, contained”), from contine?, contin?re (“hold or keep together, surround, contain”).

Adjective

content m

1. (Jersey) happy