imminent
adjective
Steven L. ThompsonWill Manley
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On Imminent and Eminent
Imminent bears a close resemblance to eminent, and native English-speakers can be excused if they sometimes have to check their spelling. No surprise, really, since the two, despite their very distinct meanings, come from near-identical sources. The Latin minēre means basically “to project, overhang,” and it forms the root of other Latin words. One added the prefix e-, meaning “out from,” to produce eminēre, “to stand out”; another took the prefix im-, meaning “upon,” and became imminēre, “to project.” The difference between “stand out” and “project” is obviously small. Still, even when eminent and imminent first appeared as English words in the 15th and 16th centuries respectively, they were clearly distinct in meaning, imminent’s prefix having strengthened the “overhang” sense of minēre to give the word its frequent suggestion of looming threat.
Examples of imminent in a Sentence
Richard A. Clarke, Atlantic, January/February 2005
The compression squashes the bullet slightly, enabling about a half-dozen spiral grooves cut along the barrel's inner wall to grab the bullet and make it spin. That spin stabilizes the bullet's imminent flight.
—Peter Weiss, Science News, 11 Jan. 2003
Plaints about the imminent demise of the language are made in every century. But there is usually nothing inherently wrong with most changes the purists deplore.
—Steven Pinker, New York Times, 24 Dec. 1999
We are awaiting their imminent arrival.
These patients are facing imminent death.
Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 12 Nov. 2024
Soho Rep has been playing its imminent departure from the downtown black box fondly known as Walkerspace very cool.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 10 Nov. 2024
Ross’s decision to retire was well-documented but Klineman informed the AVP of her imminent departure from volleyball just five days ago.
—Aaron Heisen, Orange County Register, 9 Nov. 2024
Doom scrolling on social media and gluing your eyes to cable news will get exhausting, especially if the results are not imminent.
—Theodore McDarrah, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Imminent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imminent. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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imminent
adjective
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