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Precarious vs Speculative - What's the difference?

precarious | speculative | Related terms |

Precarious is a related term of speculative.


As adjectives the difference between precarious and speculative

is that precarious is (comparable) dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous or precarious can be (dentistry) relating to incipient caries while speculative is .

precarious

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) , and Spanish and Italian precario.

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (comparable) Dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.}}
  • (legal) Depending on the intention of another.

    • Synonyms

    * (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) unsteady, rickety, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

    Usage notes

    * Because the (term) element of (term) derives from prex and not the preposition prae, this term cannot — etymologically speaking — be written as *.

    Quotations

    * 1906 , (Jack London), , part I, ch III, *: Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious .

    Derived terms

    * precariously * precariousness * precariat * precarisation, precarization * precarity

    External links

    * *

    Etymology 2

    pre-'' + ''carious

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (dentistry) Relating to incipient caries.

    • speculative

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Characterized by speculation; based on guessing or unfounded opinions.
  • *
  • *:"Don't dare laugh at us!" smiled his sister. "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children cameand the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins. Do you like the house?"
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=June 4, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
    • , title= England 2-2 Switzerland , passage=Tranquillo Barnetta was the grateful beneficiary of uncertain England defending and poor goalkeeping from Joe Hart as he twice saw speculative free-kicks end in the back of the net in the first half.}}

    Derived terms

    * speculativeness

    Related terms

    * speculate * speculativity

    See also

    * conjectural