Irregular vs Unproper - What's the difference?
irregular | unproper |
Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.
* {{quote-book
, year = 1967
, first = Barbara
, last = Sleigh
, authorlink = Barbara Sleigh
, title = (Jessamy)
, edition = 1993
, location = Sevenoaks, Kent
, publisher=Bloomsbury
, isbn = 0 340 19547 9
, page = 33
, url =
, passage = ‘ “It would be most irregular' Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty ' irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’
}}
Of a surface, rough.
Without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity.
*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01-01, author=Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore
, volume=101, issue=1, page=47–48, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=
, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal.
Whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other).
A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics.
(obsolete) Improper, not according with fact or reason; wrong, irregular.
*c. 1631 , John Donne, letter to Sir Henry Goodyere, Works , Letter XC, p. 409:
*:Sir, as I said last time, labour to keep your alacrity and dignity, in an even temper: for in a dark sadness, indifferent things seem abominable, or necessary, being neither; as trees, and sheep, to melancholy night-walkers, have unproper shapes.
*1623 , Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum , VII.694:
*:The pleasure in the act of Venus is the greatest of the pleasures of the senses: the matching of it with itch is unproper ; though that also be pleasing to the touch.
*2009 , "Own Goal for Football", The Times , 10 Oct 09:
*:Transparency is paramount. If football’s guardians cannot deliver it they will, rightly, be deemed to be every bit as unfit and unproper to play a role in administering the sport as any secretive investor they may feel motivated to investigate.
(obsolete) Not belonging to a given person; someone else's.
*1604 , William Shakespeare, Othello , IV.1:
*:There's Millions now aliue, That nightly lye in those vnproper beds, Which they dare sweare peculiar.
(rare) Improper, not according with good standards of behaviour; indecent, indecorous.
*1962 , "Meet me in St. Louis", Time , 27 Apr 1962:
*:His equally unproper brother, City Planner Charles W. II, shocked purists in the 19303 by building a flat-topped house in Ipswich.
As adjectives the difference between irregular and unproper
is that irregular is irregular while unproper is (obsolete) improper, not according with fact or reason; wrong, irregular.irregular
English
(wikipedia irregular)Adjective
(en adjective)The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.}}
Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight, passage=Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus ) undergo an irregular , nomadic type of nocturnal migration.}}
Ian Sample
Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains, passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}