different between endeavour vs preoccupation

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?d?v.?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?d?v.?/
• Rhymes: -?v?(?)

Noun

endeavour (plural endeavours)

1. Britain standard spelling of endeavor.
   • 1748, David Hume, in Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), § 9

     The like has been the endeavour of critics, logicians, and even politicians […] .

   • 1873, J C Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, volume 2, page 184:

     As we shall find it necessary, in our endeavours to bring electrical phenomena within the province of dynamics, to have our dynamical ideas in a state fit for direct application to physical questions we shall devote this chapter to an exposition of these dynamical ideas from a physical point of view.

Verb

endeavour (third-person singular simple present endeavours, present participle endeavouring, simple past and past participle endeavoured)

1. Britain standard spelling of endeavor.
   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), § 2:

     The other species of philosophers consider man in the light of a reasonable rather than an active being, and endeavour to form his understanding more than cultivate his manners.

   • November 20, 1777, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Debate in the Lords on the Address of Thanks

     It is our duty […] to endeavour the recovery of these most beneficial subjects.

   • 1669 May 18, Sir Isaac Newton, Letter (to Francis Aston):

     If you be affronted, it is better, in a foreign country, to pass it by in silence, and with a jest, though with some dishonour, than to endeavour revenge; for, in the first case, your credit's ne'er the worse when you return into England, or come into other company that have not heard of the quarrel.

English

Alternative forms

• pre-occupation

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French préoccupation, from Latin praeoccupati?. Synchronically analyzable as pre- +? occupation or preoccupy +? -ation

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

preoccupation (countable and uncountable, plural preoccupations)

1. The state of being preoccupied or an idea that preoccupies the mind; enthrallment.
2. The act of occupying something before someone else.

Synonyms

• preoccupancy

Related terms

• preoccupy
• occupation

Translations