different between vast vs ponderous

English

Etymology

From Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus (“void, immense”). Doublet of fada.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: väst, IPA^(key): /v??st/
• (US) IPA^(key): /væst/
• Rhymes: -??st

Adjective

vast (comparative vaster or more vast, superlative vastest or most vast)

1. Very large or wide (literally or figuratively).

2. Very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially extent.
3. (obsolete) Waste; desert; desolate; lonely.

Translations

Noun

vast (plural vasts)

1. (poetic) A vast space.
   • 1608, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I.i

     they have seemed to be together, though absent, shook hands, as over a vast, and embraced, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds.

Derived terms

Anagrams

• ATVs, VSAT, tavs, vats

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin v?stus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?vast/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?bast/

Adjective

vast (feminine vasta, masculine plural vasts or vastos, feminine plural vastes)

1. vast, wide

Related terms

• vastitud

Further reading

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

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v?st/
• Hyphenation: vast
• Rhymes: -?st

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch vast, from Old Dutch fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz.

Adjective

vast (comparative vaster, superlative meest vast or vastst)

1. firm, fast, tight
2. fixed, not moving or changing

3. stuck, unable to get out

4. (chemistry) in the solid state

5. (botany) perennial

6. (of a telephone) using a landline

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: vas

Adverb

vast

1. surely, certainly

   Synonym: zeker

2. (informal, sarcastically) sure, yeah, right

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

vast

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of vasten
2. imperative of vasten

Estonian

Etymology

Of Finno-Mordvinic or Finno-Volgaic origin. Cognate to Finnish vasta, Votic vassa, Northern Sami vuostá, Erzya ??????? (vastoms, “to meet; to receive”), Moksha ????? (vasta, “place; distance”) and possibly Western Mari ???????? (?aštareš, “against; across”).

Adverb

vast

1. maybe, possibly
2. recently, just, now

Derived terms

References

Livonian

Etymology

Akin to Finnish vasten

Preposition

vast

1. against

Ludian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.

Noun

vast

1. bundle (of switches for the sauna)

Romani

Etymology

Perhaps from Sanskrit ???? (hásta), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *??ástas, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *???ástas, from Proto-Indo-European *??és-to- (“hand”) < *??es-. Compare Punjabi ??? (hatth), Hindi ??? (h?th), Bengali ??? (hat); compare also Persian ???? (dast).

Noun

vast m (plural vasta)

1. (anatomy) hand

Romanian

Etymology

From French vaste, from Latin vastus.

Adjective

vast m or n (feminine singular vast?, masculine plural va?ti, feminine and neuter plural vaste)

1. vast

Declension

Related terms

• vastitate

Veps

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *vasta.

Noun

vast

1. bundle (of switches for the sauna)

English

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin ponder?sus (“weighty”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p?n.d??.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?n.d?.?s/

Adjective

ponderous (comparative more ponderous, superlative most ponderous)

1. Heavy, massive, weighty.
   • 1879, Julian Hawthorne, Archibald Malmaison, ch. 5:

     [H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.

   • c. 1920, Edgar B. P. Darlington, The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings, ch. 4:

     The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Serious, onerous, oppressive.
   • 1781, Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets, "Dryden":

     It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.

   • 1845, Charles Dickens, Pictures From Italy, ch. 11:

     In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.

   • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, ch. 19:

     For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity.

3. Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.
   • 1915, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Little Miss Grouch, ch. 10:

     Slowly, through an increasing glow that lighted land and water alike, the leviathan of the deep made her ponderous progress to the hill-encircled harbor.

   • 1919, Virginia Woolf, "Kew Gardens":

     Following his steps . . . came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous, the other rosy cheeked and nimble.

4. Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.
   • 1863, Elizabeth Gaskell, "Cousin Phillis":

     Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes.

   • 1918, Gene Stratton-Porter, A Daughter Of The Land, ch. 2:

     [A]s certainly as any one said anything in her presence that she had occasion to repeat, she changed the wording to six-syllabled mouthfuls, delivered with ponderous circumlocution.

5. (rare) Characterized by or associated with pondering.
   • c. 1660, Thomas Manton, "Sermon Upon John III" in Works of Thomas Manton (2002 edition), ?ISBN, p. 464:

     Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us.

   • 1804, The Literary Magazine and American Register, vol. 2, no. 7, p. 10:

     The acute and ponderous mind of Dr. Johnson was not always right in its decisions.

   • 1850, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, vol. 41, p. 242:

     They are the pleasantest of all companions, and perhaps the most affluent in correct opinions of men and things generally, although little addicted to ponderous consideration or deep research.

6. (obsolete) Dense.

Synonyms

• (heavy, massive): heavy, massive
• (serious, onerous): oppressive, serious

Derived terms

• ponderously
• ponderousness

Translations

Anagrams

• neuropods