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Impertinent vs Pertain - What's the difference?

impertinent | pertain |

As an adjective impertinent

is insolent, ill-mannered.

As a noun impertinent

is an impertinent individual.

As a verb pertain is

to belong.

impertinent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • insolent, ill-mannered
  • * Tillotson
  • things that are impertinent to us
  • * Jeremy Taylor
  • How impertinent that grief was which served no end!
  • irrelevant (opposite of pertinent)
  • Usage notes

    Although, historically, definition 2 was the original (derived from the French below) usage; meaning gradually changed to definition 1. More recently general usage has come to, once again, incorporate definition 2. As many older speakers will consider definition 2 incorrect, avoiding the word altogether may be advisable. The construction "not pertinent" is one possible alternative.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An impertinent individual.
  • * (Maria Edgeworth)
  • comfortably recessed from curious impertinents
    ----

    pertain

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to belong
  • to relate, to refer, be relevant to
  • Usage notes

    * In all the above senses, pertain' 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).

    Quotations

    (relate ): * 1989 , Sort out any booklets or manuals that pertain to the heating system or any other fixture that you are leaving behind. — One's company , Underwood, Lynn, Southampton: Ashford.

    Synonyms

    * appertain

    Antonyms

    * be irrelevant

    Anagrams

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