different between interject vs interact

English

Etymology

From Latin interiectus, perfect passive participle of interici? (“place between”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n.t??d??kt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?n.t??d??kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

interject (third-person singular simple present interjects, present participle interjecting, simple past and past participle interjected)

1. (transitive) To insert something between other things.
2. (transitive) To say as an interruption or aside.
   • 1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, Volume I, pp. 474-475,^[1]

     He roared with prodigious violence against George the Second. When he ceased, Moody interjected, in an Irish tone, and with a comick look, “Ah! poor George the Second.”

   • 1848, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Chapter 24,^[2]

     ‘Please, sir, Richard says one of the horses has got a very bad cold, and he thinks, sir, if you could make it convenient to go the day after to-morrow, instead of to-morrow, he could physic it to-day, so as—’

     ‘Confound his impudence!’ interjected the master.

   • 1934, Olaf Stapledon, “East is West” in Sam Moskowitz (ed.), Far Future Calling: Uncollected Science Fiction and Fantasies of Olaf Stapledon, 1979,^[3]

     As I listened I interjected an occasional sentence of Japanese translation for our guests.

   • 2000, Julian Barnes, “The Hardest Test: Drugs and the Tour de France” in The New Yorker, 21 August, 2000,^[4]

     Virenque, in a panicky mishearing, replied, “Me a dealer? No, I am not a dealer.” […] Whereupon Virenque’s lawyer interjected, “No, Richard, the judge said leader. It’s not an offense to be a leader.”

3. (intransitive) To interpose oneself; to intervene.

Synonyms

• (to insert between other things): insert
• (to interpose oneself): interpose, intervene

Related terms

• interjection

Translations

English

Etymology

inter- +? act

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?nt???ækt/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Verb

interact (third-person singular simple present interacts, present participle interacting, simple past and past participle interacted)

1. (intransitive) To act upon each other.
   1. (of people) To engage in communication and other shared activities (with someone).

   2. (of two or more things) To affect each other.
      • 1921, Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria, London: Collins, 1958, Chapter 3, p. 69,^[1]

        The fortunes of the master and the servant, intimately interacting, rose together. The Baron’s secret skill had given Leopold his unexceptionable kingdom; and Leopold, in his turn, as time went on, was able to furnish the Baron with more and more keys to more and more back doors.

      • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 3, pp. 31-32,^[2]

        It is now known that many pairs of organic phosphate insecticides are highly dangerous, the toxicity being stepped up or “potentiated” through the combined action. […] Residues well within the legally permissible limits may interact.

Translations

Noun

interact (plural interacts)

1. (dated) A short act or piece between others, as in a play; a break between acts.

   Synonyms: interlude, entracte, intermission

   • 1912, William Archer, London: Chapman & Hall, Chapter 8, pp. 108-109,^[3]

     […] the flight of time is best indicated by an interact. When the curtain is down, the action on the stage remains, as it were, in suspense. The audience lets its attention revert to the affairs of real life; and it is quite willing, when the mimic world is once more revealed, to suppose that any reasonable space of time has elapsed […]

   • 1980, Mary Chan, Music in the Theatre of Ben Jonson, Oxford: Clarendon, Part 1, Chapter 1, p. 15,^[4]

     The play gives detailed descriptions of the instruments used in the interact music […]

2. (obsolete) Intermediate employment or time.
   • 1750, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, Letters Written […] to His Son, London: P. Dodsley, 10th edition, 1792, Volume 2, Letter 219, p. 344,^[5]

     Play, in good company, is only play, and not gaming; not deep, and consequently not dangerous nor dishonourable. It is only the inter-acts of other amusements.

3. (social sciences) A pair or series of acts involving more than one person.
   • 1975, Ralph Webb, Jr., Interpersonal Speech Communication: Principles and Practices, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Chapter 1, pp. 23-24,^[6]

     Inasmuch as it is impossible to analyze the contents of an entire interpersonal relationship, it is helpful to conceptualize a given communication event as consisting of a series of subevents. Any one subevent may be pulled out as a basic unit for analysis in the study of interpersonal communication; this basic unit may then be called an interact. […] each interact is a distinctive attempt to conceal, repeat, or disclose information and/or to influence the relationship.

   • 1991, Michael Z. Hackman and Craig E. Johnson, Leadership: A Communication Perspective, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Chapter 6, p. 123,^[7]

     As they listened to groups communicate, Fisher and his coworkers noted what each group member said (labeled a speech act) and how the next person responded. This pairing of speech acts is called an interact.

Translations

Related terms

• interactable
• interactant
• interactee
• interaction
• interactive
• interactome
• interactor