distance

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See also: distancé

English

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WOTD – 26 June 2024

Etymology

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From Middle English distance, distaunce, destance (“disagreement, dispute; discrimination; armed conflict; hostility; trouble; space between two points; time interval”),[1] from Anglo-Norman distance, distaunce, destance, Middle French distance, and Old French destance, destaunce, distaunce (“debate; difference, distinction; discord, quarrel; dispute; space between two points; time interval”) (modern French distance), and directly from their etymon Latin distantia (“difference, diversity; distance, remoteness; space between two points”) (whence also Late Latin distantia (“disagreement; discrepancy; gap, opening; time interval”)), from distāns (“being distant; standing apart”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).[2] Distāns is the present active participle of distō (“to be distant; to stand apart; to differ”), from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, asunder; in two’) + stō (“to stand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)).

The verb is derived from the noun.[3]

cognates

Pronunciation

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Noun

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distance (countable and uncountable, plural distances)

  1. The amount of space between two points, usually geographical points, usually (but not necessarily) measured along a straight line.
    The distance to Petersborough is thirty miles.
    From Moscow, the distance is relatively short to Saint Petersburg, relatively long to Novosibirsk, but even greater to Vladivostok.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
  2. Length or interval of time.
    • 1718, Matthew Prior, Preface to a Collection of Poems:
      ten years' distance between my writing the one and the other
    • 1795, John Playfair, Elements of Geometry:
      the writings of Euclid at the distance of two thousand years
  3. (informal) The difference; the subjective measure between two quantities.
    We're narrowing the distance between the two versions of the bill.  The distance between the lowest and next gear on my bicycle is annoying.
  4. Remoteness of place; a remote place.
  5. Remoteness in succession or relation.
    the distance between a descendant and his ancestor
  6. A space marked out in the last part of a racecourse.
  7. (uncountable, figuratively) The entire amount of progress to an objective.
    He had promised to perform this task, but did not go the distance.
  8. (uncountable, figuratively) A withholding of intimacy; alienation; variance.
    The friendship did not survive the row: they kept each other at a distance.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Seditions and Troubles”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      Setting them [factions] at distance, or at least distrust amongst themselves.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      On the part of Heaven, / Now alienated, distance and distaste.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. […] Strangers might enter the room, but they were made to feel that they were there on sufferance: they were received with distance and suspicion.
  9. The remoteness or reserve which respect requires; hence, respect; ceremoniousness.
  10. The space measured back from the winning-post which a racehorse running in a heat must reach when the winner has covered the whole course, in order to run in the final heat.

Synonyms

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Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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distance (third-person singular simple present distances, present participle distancing, simple past and past participle distanced)

  1. (transitive)
    1. Often followed by from: to set (someone or something) at a distance from someone or something else.
    2. To cause (a place, a thing, etc.) to seem distant, or (figurative) unfamiliar.
    3. To leave behind (someone or something moving in the same direction; specifically, other competitors in a race) some distance away; to outpace, to outstrip.
      Synonyms: outdistance, (chiefly of a horse or its rider) outgallop, outrun
      • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 71:
        Then the horse, with muscles strong as steel, distanced the sound.
    4. (figurative)
      1. To keep (someone) emotionally or socially apart from another person or people.
      2. To exceed or surpass (someone, such as a peer or rival); to outdo, to outstrip.
      3. (reflexive) To keep (oneself) away from someone or something, especially because one does not want to be associated with that person or thing.
        He distanced himself from the comments made by some of his colleagues.
        • 2023 November 1, Philip Haigh, “TPE must choose the right route to a brighter future”, in RAIL, number 995, page 57:
          But Gisby distances himself from calling TPE an inter-city operator.
    5. (chiefly US, horse racing, archaic) Of a racehorse: to beat (another horse) by a certain distance; also (passive voice), to cause (a horse) to be disqualified by beating it by a certain distance.
    6. (obsolete)
      1. To cover the entire distance to (something).
      2. To depart from (a place); to leave (a place) behind.
      3. To indicate or measure the distance to (a place).
      4. To set (two or more things) at regular distances from each other; to space, to space out.
  2. (intransitive, reflexive)
    1. Often followed by from: to set oneself at a distance from someone or something else; to move away from someone or something.
    2. (figurative) To keep oneself emotionally or socially apart from another person or people; to keep one's distance.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of distance
infinitive (to) distance
present tense past tense
1st-person singular distance distanced
2nd-person singular distance, distancest† distanced, distancedst†
3rd-person singular distances, distanceth† distanced
plural distance
subjunctive distance distanced
imperative distance —
participles distancing distanced

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

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Translations

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to leave behind (someone or something moving in the same direction) some distance away — see outpace,‎ outstrip
to exceed or surpass (someone) — see exceed,‎ outdo,‎ outstrip,‎ surpass

References

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  1. ^ “distaunce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “distance, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “distance, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “distance, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “distance, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Danish

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Etymology

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From French distance.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /distanɡsə/, [d̥iˈsd̥ɑŋsə]

Noun

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distance c (singular definite distancen, plural indefinite distancer)

  1. distance
  2. detachment

Declension

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Declension of distance
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative distance distancen distancer distancerne
genitive distances distancens distancers distancernes

Further reading

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Esperanto

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Etymology

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From distanco +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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distance

  1. To or at a great distance.
    rigardi pentraĵon distance.

French

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Latin distantia.

Noun

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distance f (plural distances)

  1. distance (literal physical distance)
    On se tient à distance de deux kilomètres l’un de l’autre.
    We stand at a distance of two kilometers from each other.
  2. distance (metaphoric or figurative)
    Il convient de la tenir à une certaine distance.
    It's suitable to maintain a certain distance.
    • 2014, Jean-Claude Bernardon, Résolution de conflits:
      Votre langage doit vous permettre de maintenir une bonne distance de sécurité, être un peu plus poli et détaché que nécessaire est un avantage.
      Your language must allow you to maintain a good safe distance, to be a little more polite and detached than necessary is an advantage.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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distance

  1. inflection of distancer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

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Latvian

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Noun

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distance f (5 declension)

  1. distance
  2. interval
  3. railway division

Declension

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Declension of distance (5th declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) distance distances
accusative (akuzatīvs) distanci distances
genitive (ģenitīvs) distances distanču
dative (datīvs) distancei distancēm
instrumental (instrumentālis) distanci distancēm
locative (lokatīvs) distancē distancēs
vocative (vokatīvs) distance distances
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