Word of the Day

Monday November 23, 2009

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eminent [EM-uh-nuhnt]

adjective

1. High in position, rank, merit or repute; distinguished.
2. Standing out above others; prominent; towering.
3. High; lofty.
4. Conspicous.

• What really gives women in Britain a leg up over those in New York, Ms. Lloyd said, is the nationally subsidized theater. Because of the government money, theaters -- including the eminent National Theater and Royal Shakespeare Company -- have been more likely to hire female directors, giving them the crucial experience of running a large production, she said.
  Patricia Cohen, "Who's in Charge of This Show? She Is", New York Times, Jun 28, 2009
• To his adoring fans, Weiss, a Jewish immigrant from Budapest, was known as Harry Houdini, contortionist, muscle man and escape artist. His is one of many fascinating stories that the eminent cultural historian Jackson Lears tells in "Rebirth of a Nation," his account of the making of modern America in the half-century after the Civil War.
  Charles Postel, "Bursting Into the Modern Age", The Washington Post, Jun 28, 2009
• Science was not altogether forgotten, but contributed its agreeable delegate in the person of the eminent physician to whom we have been before introduced, -- Dr. Bacourt.
  Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803 - 1873) An English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. The Parisians (1872)

Origin of the Word

Eminent, approximately 1420, derives from Latin eminentem , present participle of eminere "stand out, project," from ex- "out" + minere, related to mons "hill". Eminence is first attested 1621; as a title of honor (now only of cardinals) it is attested from 1653.