▪ I. different, a. (n., adv.)
(ˈdɪfərənt)
[a. F. différent (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. different-em differing, different, pr. pple. of differ-re trans. to bear or carry asunder, etc., intr. to tend asunder, have opposite bearings, differ.]
A. adj.
1. a. Having characters or qualities which diverge from one another; having unlike or distinguishing attributes; not of the same kind; not alike; of other nature, form, or quality.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 90 To heele boþe þe ulcus and þe festre wiþ medicyns different þat longen to þem boþe. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 1 Largely and in many diffirent maners. c 1500 Sc. Poem Her. 43 in Q. Eliz. Acad., etc. 95 The fader the hole, the eldest son deffer[e]nt, quhiche a labelle; a cressent the secound. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 21 b, Persons different in state and condition. 1607 Shakes. Lear iv. iii. 37 Mate and mate could not beget Such different issues. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. xv. 79 Appetite, and Aversions..in different tempers..are different. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 114 ¶4 Their Manners are very widely different. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. viii. 50 With what different eyes different people behold the same objects. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxii. 154 Different positions of the limb require different molecular arrangements. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 29 Principles as widely different as benevolence and self-love. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. 248 We both enjoyed the same scenes, though in different ways. |
b. Const. from; also to, than († against, † with).
The usual construction is now with from; that with to (after unlike, dissimilar to) is found in writers of all ages, and is frequent colloquially, but is by many considered incorrect. The construction with than (after other than), is found in Fuller, Addison, Steele, De Foe, Richardson, Goldsmith, Miss Burney, Coleridge, Southey, De Quincey, Carlyle, Thackeray, Newman, Trench, and Dasent, among others: see F. Hall Mod. English iii. 82.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 125 b, His lyght is moche different and vnlyke to the lyght of the holy goost. 1588 R. Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 257 If..they could write any other language that were different vnto theirs. [Ibid. 271, 291.] 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 46 This weeke he hath beene..much different from the man he was. 1603 Dekker, &c. Grissil (1841) 72 Oh, my dear Grissil, how much different Art thou to this curs'd spirit here! 1624 Heywood Gunaik. i. 15 Humane wisdome, different against the divine will, is vaine and contemptible. 1644 Digby Nat. Bodies ii. (1645) 45 We make use of them in a quite different manner then we did in the beginning. 1649 Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Passions (1671) 245 She [hatred] hath this of different with love, that she is much more sensible. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 159 ¶2 Tunes..different from anything I had ever heard. 1737 Fielding Hist. Reg. ii. Wks. (1882) X. 218 It's quite a different thing within to what it is without. 1769 Goldsm. Rom. Hist. (1786) I. 105 The consuls..had been elected for very different merits than those of skill in war. 1790 Colebrooke in Life (1873) 38 The different prosperity of the country which they conquered..with that of the countries under English rule. 1848 J. H. Newman Loss & Gain 306 It has possessed me in a different way than ever before. 1852 Thackeray Esmond ii. ii. (1869) 169 The party of prisoners lived..with comforts very different to those which were awarded to the poor wretches there. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 44 Warehouses and wharves no way different from those on either side of them. |
c. colloq. Out of the ordinary, special, recherché.
| 1912 D. F. Canfield Squirrel Cage iii, What a perfectly lovely couch... Why, it is so beautifully different! Ibid. xviii, To avoid being ‘queer’ and ‘different’ one had to play a good hand [at Bridge]. 1930 Publishers' Weekly 8 Feb. 709/1 They are always striving to write a piece of copy that will be ‘different’, that ‘will hit the reader right between the eyes’. Ibid. 15 Mar. 1554/1 A ‘different’ book ad appeared in the Sunday, March the 9th, New York Herald Tribune. 1930 Week-end Rev. 7 June 467 Ireland this year! For a ‘different’ holiday, with all the charms of foreign travel and none of the disadvantages. 1965 New Statesman 7 May 712/2 The Mail's bold, different typography. |
2. In a weaker sense, used as a synonym for other, as denying identity, but without any implication of dissimilarity; not the same, not identical, distinct.
| 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvi. 138 Civill, and Naturall Law are not different kinds, but different parts of Law. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 35 ¶3 At different times he appears as serious as a Judge, and as jocular as a Merry-Andrew. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. v. §2 (1819) 52 To different persons, and in different stages of science. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. i. 3 Some..may be split with different facility in different directions. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. App. 717 Eadwig King of the Churls is quite a different person from Eadwig the ætheling. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. iii. (1879) 145 The daily motion of the Earth is very different in different parts. Mod. I suspect this is a different coin from the other, though, being both new sovereigns of this year, they are quite indistinguishable. |
3. Comb., as different-minded, different-coloured.
| 1680 Allen Peace & Unity 13 If this..will not reconcile the different-minded to our judgement. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 455 We may have different heights..or wear different-coloured clothes. 1831 Brewster Optics x. 91 The different-coloured spaces of the spectrum. |
B. n.
† 1. A disagreement, dispute; = difference n. 3. Obs. rare. [OF. différent, written by the Academy différend.]
| 1483 Caxton Cato C iij b, The whych deuyll myght not fynde the manere for to..brynge them to dyscencion and dyfferente. 1484 ― Fables of æsop iv. vi, Whan a lygnage or kyndred is in dyfferent or in dyuysyon. Ibid. v. x, We praye the that thow vouchesauf to accorde our dyferent so that pees be made betwene vs. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] tr. Hist. Ivstine Ll ij a, Whereupon arose cruell differents betweene the Genooise and the Venetians. |
2. That which is different; a contrary or opposite. rare.
| 1581 Lambarde Eiren. iv. Epil. (1602) 589 To shew things by their contraries and differents. 1890 J. H. Stirling Philos. & Theol. iii. 49 The fairest harmony results from differents. |
C. as adv. = differently. Now only in uneducated use.
| 1744 S. Fielding David Simple I. 253, I spent my Infancy..very different from what most Children do. 1775 F. Burney Early Diary (1889) II. 131 He pronounces English quite different from other foreigners. 1803 tr. Lebrun's Mons. Botte III. 9 They had..acted perfectly different from those parties who [etc.]. 1863 Kingsley Water Bab. viii. 374 ‘Oh dear, if I was but a little chap in Vendale again..how different I would go on!’ |
▪ II. different
obs. form of deferent.