different between spontaneous vs subitaneous

English

Etymology

Late Latin spont?neus, from Latin sponte (su?) (“of one's free will, voluntarily”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sp?n?te?.ni.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sp?n?te?.ni.?s/
• Rhymes: -e?ni?s

Adjective

spontaneous (comparative more spontaneous, superlative most spontaneous)

1. Self-generated; happening without any apparent external cause.

   He made a spontaneous offer of help.

2. Done by one's own free choice, or without planning.
3. Proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external or conscious constraint
4. Arising from a momentary impulse
5. Controlled and directed internally; self-active; spontaneous movement characteristic of living things
6. Produced without being planted or without human cultivation or labor.
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. IV, ch. 106:

     [H]e persisted in his design; and, because he would not make his wants known, actually subsisted for several days on hips, haws and sloes, and other spontaneous fruits which he gathered in the woods and fields.

7. Random.
8. Sudden, without warning.

Synonyms

• (self-generated): autonomous
• (done by one's own free choice): autonomous
• (proceeding from natural feeling...): autonomous
• (sudden, without warning): abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden

Derived terms

• spontaneity
• spontaneously

Related terms

• spontaneous combustion

Translations

English

Etymology

From Latin subitaneus. Doublet of sudden.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e?ni?s

Adjective

subitaneous (comparative more subitaneous, superlative most subitaneous)

1. (obsolete) sudden

Synonyms

• abrupt, precipitous, spontaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden

Derived terms

References

• subitaneous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.