ent

See also: Ent, ENT, ént, ënt, ent-, -ent, and ent.

Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of French partie entière, Spanish parta entera, etc.

Symbol

ent

1. (mathematics, rare) A symbol for the floor function.

Usage notes

Mentioned in ISO 80000-2:2019 as an alternative to the ⌊x⌋ bracket notation.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Old English ent (“giant”), from Proto-West Germanic *anti; introduced by J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, 1954–55, as Ent.

Compare Middle English *ent, eont (“giant”), inherited from the Old English word, but which apparently did not survive through the Middle English period into Modern times. Apparently survived in some German dialects as Enz (“giant”), also in composite forms. Compare ettin.

Noun

ent (plural ents)

1. (fantasy) A large, fictional, humanoid, walking tree in works by J. R. R. Tolkien.
   • 2003, Walter Scheps, “The Fairy-tale Morality of The Lord of the Rings”, in Jared Lobdell, editor, A Tolkien Compass:

     […] and that fine young ent Quickbeam is merely a minor crux in an Old English glossary (the name Quickbeam means 'living tree' in Old English).

   • 2003, Allen Paterson, Trees for Your Garden, page 180:

     But this should not lead to complete avoidance, as if it is like some dire incursion of triffids or ents.

   • 2003, Robert Dunn, Horse Latitudes, page 98:

     Somewhere, ents and manitous laugh grimly For, despite all this, the trees lasted much longer Than most of the presents, and all of the holiday spirit.

   • 2006, John Allran, Men of Their Word, page 37:

     Hello, my good friend, myself I present. Not human, nor tree, for I am an ent.

   • 2017, Inga Simpson, Understory‎^[1], Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     In The Lords of the Rings there are dark forces in the forest—the Huorn. Huorn are ents who have become more treeish, gone rogue. They can still move and speak, but only with the ents.

Alternative forms

• Ent

Derived terms

• treant

Translations

a fictional large talking tree

• Bengali: এণ্ট (enṭo)
• Finnish: entti (fi)
• German: Ent m
• Marathi: एन्ट m (enṭa)
• Russian: энт m (ent)
• Serbo-Croatian: ент m, ent m

Etymology 2

Possibly from empty, through assimilation of /m/ to the following /t/.

Verb

ent (third-person singular simple present ents, present participle enting, simple past and past participle ented)

1. (Cornwall) To empty or pour.
   • 1976, K. C. Phillips, Westcountry Words and Ways, Newton Abbot: David & Charles, page 47:

     A Truro correspondent remembers being sent to buy a teapot with the admonition 'and see he got a good ent to un'; that is, of course, a good 'pour'.
     "Enting down with rain" is still occasionally heard.

Anagrams

• .NET, NET, Net, TEN, net, ten

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ent
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch ente, from enten (“to graft”) (modern Dutch enten), from Old French enter, from Latin imputāre.

Noun

ent m (plural enten, diminutive entje n)

1. graft (particularly on a tree)

Descendants

• → Indonesian: enten (from the plural)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

ent

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

Anagrams

• net, ten

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from Proto-Norse [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *anþi. Compare Finnish entä (“what about; what if”).

Conjunction

ent

1. but

Ladin

Alternative forms

• ënt

Noun

ent m (plural enc)

1. entity
2. corporation, body

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *anti, from unknown origin. Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐍄- (ant-, “giant-”, prefix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ent/

Noun

ent m

1. giant

Declension

Declension of ent (strong i-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	ent	entas
accusative	ent	entas
genitive	entes	enta
dative	ente	entum

Synonyms

• eoten
• þyrs

Derived terms

• entisċ

Descendants

• Middle English: eont
• → English: ent

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *anti (“giant”). Cognate with Old English ent, Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐍄- (ant-, “giant-”, prefix).

Noun

ent m

1. giant

Declension

Declension of ent (masculine a-stem)

	singular	plural
nominative	ent	entos
accusative	ent	entos
genitive	entes	entō
dative	ente	entum
instrumental	—	—

Derived terms

• entisk

Portuguese

Adverb

ent (not comparable)

1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of então.

Conjunction

ent

1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of então.

Interjection

ent

1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of então.

Scots

Verb

ent (third-person singular simple present ents, present participle entin, simple past ented, past participle ented)

1. Shetland form of aint

References

• “ent, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.