eminent, a.
(ˈɛmɪnənt)
[f. L. ēminēnt-em, pr. pple. of ēminē-re to project.]
I. In physical (and obvious metaphorical) senses.
1. High, towering above surrounding objects. Also fig. Now poet. or arch.
| 1588 Allen Admon. 22 Nero..deuised an eminent pillar. 1611 Bible Ezek. xvii. 22 Upon an high mountain and eminent. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 587 He above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent Stood like a Towr. 1674 Brevint Saul at Endor 363 Images..seated on the Eminentest Places of the Church. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1446 The eminent part..is the S.E. point. 1814 Southey Roderick xiv, Upon a stately war-horse eminent. |
| fig. 1830 Tennyson Love & Death, In the light of great eternity Life eminent creates the shade of death. 1851 Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Windows 87 The patriot's oath..stands Among the oaths of perjurers, eminent. |
b. In weaker sense: Projecting, prominent, protruding. Also
fig.| 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg., A party of the orbytall, or emynent pomall. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 155 Females [elephants] carry..their Calves upon their snowts and long eminent teeth. 1644 Bulwer Chiron. 67 The..Fingers..presented in an eminent posture. 1744 Akenside Pleas. Imag. iii. 407 The fairer [parts], eminent in light, advance. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 124 A very eminent nose. |
| fig. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. (1873) 289 Some eminent verse lifts its long ridge above its tamer peers. |
II. In non-material senses. (Formerly often with some notion of 1.)
2. Of persons:
a. Exalted, dignified in rank or station.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. iv. 25 A deflowred maid, And by an eminent body. 1691 Hartcliffe Virtues 141 We may not lawfully be angry..with those in eminent Place. 1761 Hume Hist. Eng. III. liv. 175 The king was too eminent a magistrate to be trusted with discretionary power. 1786 Burke Art. W. Hastings Wks. 1842 II. 140 A certain native person of distinction or eminent rajah. |
b. Distinguished in character or attainments, or by success in any walk of life. (The use in bad sense is now
ironical.)
| 1611 Bible Job xxii. 8 The honourable man [marg. eminent or accepted for countenance]. 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. iii. 66 These two eminentest Prophets..resist the Captaines, Souldiers, and unjust Executioners of their Princes. 1728 Newton Chronol. Amended i. 60 Eminent Musicians and Poets flourished in Greece. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 407 An eminent practitioner..entertains a different opinion. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 5 Eminent cooks are paid 1200l. a-year. 1847 Grote Greece ii. xlvii. (1862) IV. 157 Thucydides..was eminent as a speaker. |
c. Eminent Persons Group, a group of Commonwealth politicians who visited South Africa in 1986 in order to investigate ways of ending the country's political unrest.
Abbrev. EPG s.v. E. III.
| 1986 Guardian 5 Feb. 7/1 Sir Geoffrey won the support for the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group of the EEC–Frontline States meeting. 1986 Financial Times 13 May 19/1 Pretoria sees the Eminent Persons Group as a useful channel of communication with the ANC and the international community. 1986 Times 20 May 1/7 The Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group (EPG), which is trying to mediate between Pretoria and the ANC, had left Lusaka..for Cape Town. 1987 Financial Times 10 June 10 The remark could equally have applied to..his contribution to the report of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons' Group on South Africa. |
† 3. Of things or places: Chief, principal, important; especially valuable.
Obs.| 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 15 Their cheife and eminent inward parts are defiled. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. v. 128 An eminent country in Idumea. 1676 Allen Addr. Nonconf. 176 Prayer..is an eminent part of Gods worship. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 130 If your Shop stands in an eminent Street. 1683 Salmon Doron Med. iii. 644 It gives present ease, and is eminent against all..pains. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. ii. 218 These Muscles..drawing the Eye out on eminent Ocasions. |
4. Of qualities: Remarkable in degree;
† conspicuously displayed. Of actions, facts, phenomena: Signal, noteworthy (now chiefly in good sense).
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 90 The cok confesseth emynent cupide. 1454 in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 38 I. 120 The emynent myscheve and ffynall destruccionne of the said Counte. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. xi. (1611) 34 After an eminent sort. 1655–60 Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 5/2 There is an eminent place in Eusebius to prove this. 1657 G. Starkey Helmont's Vind. 267 An eminent fright will take away..Agues. 1677 Feltham Resolves i. xlv. Wks. (ed. 10) 72 His valor..is..eminent in his killing of the Bear and Lion. 1691 Ray Creation (1714) 159 A peculiar sort of voice..is..eminent in Quails. a 1704 T. Brown Praise Drunkenn. Poems (1730) I. 31 The god of wine..whose eminent perfection Drunkenness I intend to make the subject of..discourse. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 34 ¶1 Mountebanks..do their most eminent Operations in Sight of the People. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey iii. i. 89 His success was eminent. 1862 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. App. 453 The reputation justly acquired by his eminent services. 1869 Gladstone Juv. Mundi ii. 65 Their opponents..were..not Achaian in the same eminent sense. |
b. Cryst. (See
quot.)
| 1831 Brewster Optics xxiii. 204 The plane of most eminent cleavage. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §1. 3 One cleavage is much more perfect, or more eminent as it is sometimes called, than the rest. |
5. Law.
right of eminent domain: see
quots.| 1738 Hist. Crt. Excheq. vi. 111 The King who had the eminent Dominion. 1853 Wharton Pa. Digest 673 §3 The right of eminent domain, or inherent sovereign power gives the Legislature the control of private property for public use. 1880 Brown Law Dict. s.v., Eminent domain is the ownership or dominium (domain) of an independent sovereign over the territories of his sovereignty, by virtue of which no other sovereign can exercise any jurisdiction therein. 1886 Pall Mall G. 14 July 5/1 The State exercising its right of eminent domain. |
¶ 6. Confused with
imminent (so
freq. eminens in
med.L. for
imminens).
Obs.| 1600 Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 377 The eminent dangers which euery houre we saw before our Eyes. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 156 Let..your Patient be..informed of the eminent danger of death. 1616 Brent tr. Sarpi's Hist. Council of Trent (1676) 269 The actual and eminent departure of many Fathers. 1722 De Foe Plague (1884) 94 The eminent Danger I had been in. |