ent
Translingual
Usage notes
Mentioned in ISO 80000-2:2019 as an alternative to the ⌊x⌋ bracket notation.
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɛnt/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛnt
Etymology 1
Learned borrowing from Old English ent (“giant”), from Proto-West Germanic *anti; introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–55, as Ent.
Compare Middle English *ent, eont (“giant”), inherited from the Old English word, but which apparently did not survive through the Middle English period into Modern times. Apparently survived in some German dialects as Enz (“giant”), also in composite forms. Compare ettin.
Noun
ent (plural ents)
- (fantasy) A large, fictional, humanoid, walking tree in works by J. R. R. Tolkien.
- 2003, Walter Scheps, “The Fairy-tale Morality of The Lord of the Rings”, in Jared Lobdell, editor, A Tolkien Compass:
- […] and that fine young ent Quickbeam is merely a minor crux in an Old English glossary (the name Quickbeam means 'living tree' in Old English).
- 2003, Allen Paterson, Trees for Your Garden, page 180:
- But this should not lead to complete avoidance, as if it is like some dire incursion of triffids or ents.
- 2003, Robert Dunn, Horse Latitudes, page 98:
- Somewhere, ents and manitous laugh grimly For, despite all this, the trees lasted much longer Than most of the presents, and all of the holiday spirit.
- 2006, John Allran, Men of Their Word, page 37:
- Hello, my good friend, myself I present. Not human, nor tree, for I am an ent.
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
Possibly from empty, through assimilation of /m/ to the following /t/.
Verb
ent (third-person singular simple present ents, present participle enting, simple past and past participle ented)
- (Cornwall) To empty or pour.
- 1976, K. C. Phillips, Westcountry Words and Ways, Newton Abbot: David & Charles, page 47:
- A Truro correspondent remembers being sent to buy a teapot with the admonition 'and see he got a good ent to un'; that is, of course, a good 'pour'.
"Enting down with rain" is still occasionally heard.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɛnt/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: ent
- Rhymes: -ɛnt
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch ente, from enten (“to graft”) (modern Dutch enten), from Old French enter, from Latin imputāre.
Descendants
- → Indonesian: enten (from the plural)
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Estonian
Etymology
Borrowed from Proto-Norse [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *anþi. Compare Finnish entä (“what about; what if”).
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-West Germanic *anti, from unknown origin. Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐍄- (ant-, “giant-”, prefix).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ent/
Declension
Derived terms
Descendants
- Middle English: eont
- → English: ent
Old Saxon
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *antiz (“giant”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Old English ent, Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐍄- (ant-, “giant-”, prefix).
Derived terms
Portuguese
Scots
Verb
ent (third-person singular simple present ents, present participle entin, simple past ented, past participle ented)
References
- “ent, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.