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Appertain vs Belong - What's the difference?

appertain | belong |

As a verb appertain

is to belong to or be a part of, whether by right, nature, appointment, or custom; to relate to.

As an adjective belong is

oblong.

appertain

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To belong to or be a part of, whether by right, nature, appointment, or custom; to relate to.
  • * {{quote-book, year= 1551
  • , year_published= 1888 , author= , by= , title= A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society. , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=JmpXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217 , original= , chapter= , section= Part 1 , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Clarendon Press , location= Oxford , editor= , volume= 1 , page= 217 , passage= Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber. }}
  • * {{quote-book, year= 1886
  • , year_published= 1902 , author= (Arthur Conan Doyle) , by= , title= (A Study in Scarlet) , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=CUnIjAWSCmIC&pg=PA115 , original= , chapter= On the Great Alkali Plain , section= The Country of the Saints , isbn= , edition= , publisher= D. Appleton and Company , location= New York , editor= , volume= , page= 115 , passage= In this great stretch of country there is no sign of life, nor of anything appertaining to life. There is no bird in the steel-blue heaven, no movement upon the dull, grey earth—above all, there is absolute silence. Listen as one may, there is no shadow of a sound in all that mighty wilderness; nothing but silence—complete and heart-subduing silence. }}

    Usage notes

    * Appertain' is followed by '''to''' (or formerly by '''unto''', as in ''The King James Version of The Bible'' and in the plays of Shakespeare, although ' to is used in these works as well).

    Synonyms

    * pertain

    Antonyms

    * be irrelevant

    belong

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) belongen, from .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To have its proper place.
  • # (label) To be accepted in a group.
  • # To be a part of a group.
  • To be part of, or the property of.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.}}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1927, author= F. E. Penny
  • , chapter=4, title= Pulling the Strings , passage=A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff. These properties were known to have belonged to a toddy drawer. He had disappeared.}}
  • To be the spouse or partner of. (rfex)
  • (followed by'' to''') To be an element of (a set). The symbol \in means '''''belongs to .
  • To be deserved by.
  • * (rfdate) (Ben Jonson)
  • More evils belong us than happen to us.
    Derived terms
    * belonging * belongingness

    Etymology 2

    Compare Kriol blanga'', Bislama ''blong'', Tok Pisin ''bilong'', and Torres Strait Creole ''blong .

    Alternative forms

    * blung * , belonga, blonga

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Of, belonging to.
  • * 1915, E. R. Masson, Untamed Territory
  • Jim Campbell, Charlie, Dick, ... Fred, lubra b’longa him, me, thass all.
  • * 1936, M. & E. Durack, Chunuma
  • By an’ bye ’im grow ’m up make ’m good fella stockman b’longta you.
  • * 1977, N. Kolig, Playing Alonga Mud
  • Those who had persevered with the course and had acquired some skill were now almost deferentially called ‘Maban (expert) belonga clay’.
  • * 1986, Kowanyama News, Dec.
  • Them two bin help’m too, and that father blung to this one old Frank.
  • * 1986, B. Shaw, Countrymen
  • There’s the bloke that’s kill that feller, uncle belong you an me.
  • * 1991, D. B. Rose, Hidden Histories
  • Get that fire [wood] stacked up like that tree there, that high ... It wasn’t wood belong to that fire pile. Might be for station, or somebody else, you know.