Figment vs Conceit - What's the difference?
figment | conceit | Related terms |
A fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious.
* 1989 (Sep 30), R. McNeill Alexander, "Biomechanics in the days before Newton", New Scientist volume 123, No. 1684, page 59
* 1999 , Martin Gardner, The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener , page 12
* 2004 , Daniel C. Noel, In a Wayward Mood: Selected Writings 1969-2002 , page 256
(obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.
* Francis Bacon
* Bible, Proverbs xxvi. 12
The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
* Sir Philip Sidney
Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
* Shakespeare
(obsolete) Opinion, (neutral) judgment.
* 1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Courte :
(countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.
* L'Estrange
* Alexander Pope
* Dryden
(countable, rhetoric, literature) An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.
(uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.
* Cotton
Design; pattern.
(obsolete) To form an idea; to think.
* 1643 : ,
(obsolete) To conceive.
* South
* Shakespeare
Figment is a related term of conceit.
As nouns the difference between figment and conceit
is that figment is a fabrication, fantasy, invention; something fictitious while conceit is (obsolete) something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.As a verb conceit is
(obsolete) to form an idea; to think.figment
English
Noun
(en noun)- He had not seen sarcomeres: these segments were a figment of his imagination.
- Perhaps, dear reader, you are only a figment in the dream of some god, as Sherlock Holmes was a figment in the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Jung's implication here is clearly that one should try to forget that this is only a figment or fantasy, merely make-believe—or perhaps that one should forget the “only,” the “merely”—and indeed take the fantasy seriously as a reality.
Usage notes
* Often used in the form "a figment of [someone's] imagination".References
* *conceit
English
Alternative forms
* (obsolete)Noun
- In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous.
- a man wise in his own conceit
- a man of quick conceit
- How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.
- His wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.
- By him that me boughte, than quod Dysdayne, / I wonder sore he is in suche cenceyte .
- On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit .
- Some to conceit alone their works confine, / And glittering thoughts struck out at every line.
- Tasso is full of conceits which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature.
- Plumed with conceit he calls aloud.
- (Shakespeare)
Derived terms
* conceited * conceitedly * conceitedness * self-conceitVerb
(en verb)The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
- Those whose vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes.
- The strong, by conceiting themselves weak, are therebly rendered as inactive as if they really were so.
- One of two bad ways you must conceit me, / Either a coward or a flatterer.