exigent

exigent
exigent, exiguous
Neither word is common in ordinary usage and both are marked ‘formal’ in the COD (2006). Both are related to Latin exigere in its two meanings ‘to enforce payment of’ and ‘to weigh exactly’. Exigent corresponds to the first of these and means ‘exacting’ or ‘urgent’:

• He was a man whose personal life, though occasionally exigent, never became a siren song —A. S. Byatt, 1988

• It was…very much the brainchild of its two editors who ensured that its range and quality of content was up to their own exigent standards —Independent, 1999.

Exiguous corresponds to the second meaning and means ‘very small, sparse, scanty’:

• She gulped it down, paid the exiguous dispensing fee, and left the premises —E. R. Taylor, 1991

• For an octogenarian who has led an extraordinarily rich life, a mere two sparse pages of chronology is just about as biographically exiguous as you can get —Times Higher Education Supplement, 2002.


Modern English usage. 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • exigent — EXIGÉNT, Ă, exigenţi, te, adj. Care pretinde multă grijă, stricteţe, corectitudine de la alţii (şi de la sine însuşi) în privinţa îndeplinirii unei datorii; pretenţios. – Din. fr. exigeant, lat. exigens, ntis. Trimis de claudia, 13.09.2007. Sursa …   Dicționar Român

  • exigent — ex·i·gent / ek sə jənt/ adj: requiring immediate aid or action see also exigent circumstances Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996 …   Law dictionary

  • exigent — exigent, exigi facias Exigent, /eksajant/ exigi facias /ekssjay feys(h)iyas/ L. Lat. In English practice, a judicial writ made use of in the process of outlawry, commanding the sheriff to demand the defendant (or cause him to be demanded, exigi… …   Black's law dictionary

  • exigent — exigent, exigi facias Exigent, /eksajant/ exigi facias /ekssjay feys(h)iyas/ L. Lat. In English practice, a judicial writ made use of in the process of outlawry, commanding the sheriff to demand the defendant (or cause him to be demanded, exigi… …   Black's law dictionary

  • Exigent — Ex i*gent, a. [L. exigens, entis, p. pr. of exigere to drive out or forth, require, exact. See {Exact}.] Exacting or requiring immediate aid or action; pressing; critical. At this exigent moment. Burke. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Exigent — Ex i*gent, n. 1. Exigency; pressing necessity; decisive moment. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Why do you cross me in this exigent? Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. (o. Eng. Law) The name of a writ in proceedings before outlawry. Abbott. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • exigent — [adj1] urgent, pressing acute, burning, clamant, clamorous, constraining, critical, crucial, crying, imperative, importunate, insistent, instant, menacing, necessary, needful, threatening; concepts 548,568 Ant. ordinary, unpressured, usual… …   New thesaurus

  • exigent — 1660s, urgent, a back formation from EXIGENCY (Cf. exigency) or else from L. exigentem (nom. exigens), prp. of exigere to demand (see EXACT (Cf. exact) (v.)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • exigent — adj *pressing, urgent, imperative, crying, importunate, insistent, instant Analogous words: critical, crucial, *acute: threatening, menacing (see THREATEN): compelling, constraining (see FORCE vb) …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • exigent — ► ADJECTIVE formal ▪ pressing; demanding …   English terms dictionary

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