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Enable vs Em - What's the difference?

enable | em |

As a verb enable

is to give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.

As a noun em is

: The ems and ens at the beginnings and ends.

As a pronoun em is

them singular. Gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun, coordinate with {{term|him and {{term|her}}.}.

As an interjection em is

a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty; um; umm; erm.

As a proper noun Em is

a diminutive of the female given names Emily and Emma.

enable

English

(Webster 1913)

Verb

(enabling) (enabl)
  • To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.
  • * 1611 , King James Bible , "1 Tim. i. 12"
    • Who hath enabled me.
  • To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.
  • * 1711 , October 13, (Joseph Addison), (The Spectator) , number 195
    • Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
  • To allow a way out or excuse for an action.

    • Antonyms

    * disable

    Derived terms

    * enabler * enablement * re-enable * reenable

    External links

    * * *

    Anagrams

    *

    em

    English

    Etymology 1

    The typographic em is named after the metal type for the capital (M) in early printing, whose body was square (the printed letter M is almost never one em in width).

    Noun

    (en noun)
    • The ems and ens at the beginnings and ends.
  • (typography) A unit of measurement equal to the height of the type in use.
    • Synonyms
    * (typography) quad, em quad * (typography) mutton, mut
    Derived terms
    * emcee * em dash

    See also

    *

    Etymology 2

    (Spivak pronouns) Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing the "th" from (them), perhaps influenced by (term, 'em).

    Pronoun

  • (neologism) them (singular).
  • * {{quote-book
    • , date = 1986-04-01 , title = The Joy of TeX: A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX macro package , first = Michael , last = Spivak , location = Providence , publisher = American Mathematical Society , page = 68 , isbn = 0821829998 , id = , lccn = 85007506 , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=kXzxAAAAMAAJ&q=up+to+Em+to+indicate+Eir , passage = If the author uses such notation, it should be up to Em to indicate Eir intentions clearly, but there's no harm checking first. }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year = 1997 , title = Doom Patrols : A Theoretical Fiction About Postmodernism , first = Steven , last = Shaviro , publisher = Serpent's Tail , location = London , isbn = 9781852424305 , lccn = 9668813 , page = 138 , passage = I may become quite intimate with someone, spend hours with em every night, and yet not have the slightest idea what eir voice sounds like, or what eir RL body looks, feels, and smells like. }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year = 2000 , chapter = Ethics, Plugged and Unplugged: The Pegagogy of Disorderly Conduct , first = Jane , last = Love , title = Taking flight with OWLs: Examining Electronic Writing Center Work , editors = Inman, James A.; Sewell, Donna N. , publisher = Taylor & Francis , isbn = 0805831711 , id = , page = 193 , passage = E invites em to consider how ey represent emselves(SIC), and in so doing, e focuses eir attention on the ethics that make human relations possible. , url = http://books.google.com/books?id=aFKqSzIxCLkC&pg=PA193 }}
  • * {{quote-web
    • , date = 2011-03-15 , title =
  • 89: New Friend
    • , blog = Riot Nrrd , first = RJ , last = Edwards , url = http://www.riotnrrdcomics.com/2011/03/89-new-friend/ , accessdate = 2012-10-06 , passage = And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em . }}
    Synonyms
    * him or her, * (singular) them * (neologism) hir
    Derived terms
    * (neologism) emself

    See also

    * other gender-neutral pronouns

    Etymology 3

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (Scotland, Ireland) a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty; um; umm; erm
    • She was going to, em ... the salon, I think.

    Anagrams

    * English two-letter words English third person pronouns ----