appertain
English
Etymology
From Middle English apperteinen, apertenen, borrowed from Old French apartenir (French appartenir), from Late Latin appertinere, from ad (“to”) + Latin pertinere (“to reach to, belong”). More at pertain.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /æpɚˈteɪn/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪn
Verb
appertain (third-person singular simple present appertains, present participle appertaining, simple past and past participle appertained)
- To belong to or be a part of, whether by right, nature, appointment, or custom; to relate to.
- To belong as a part, right, possession, attribute, etc.
- 1551, James A.H. Murray, editor, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society., volume 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1888, Part 1, page 217:
- Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber.
- 1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, “On the Great Alkali Plain”, in A Study in Scarlet, New York: D. Appleton and Company, published 1902, The Country of the Saints, page 115:
- In this great stretch of country there is no sign of life, nor of anything appertaining to life. There is no bird in the steel-blue heaven, no movement upon the dull, grey earth—above all, there is absolute silence. Listen as one may, there is no shadow of a sound in all that mighty wilderness; nothing but silence—complete and heart-subduing silence.
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Usage notes
- Appertain is followed by to (or formerly by unto, as in The King James Version of The Bible and in the plays of Shakespeare, although to is used in these works as well).
Synonyms
- pertain
Antonyms
- be irrelevant
Related terms
- appurtenance
- pertain
- pertinence
- pertinent
Translations
to belong to or be a part of, whether by right, nature, appointment, or custom; to relate to
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