A WORD A DAY.
TANTAMOUNT. This word is of Anglo-French origin, and while it made an early appearance as tant amunter, it is really a combination of the French tant, “so much” (from the Latin tantus, “so great”) and the English amount; the literal definition is, therefore, “amounting to so much.” As most commonly used, the word expressed the quality of equality, or equivalence in signification or effect. Among words regarded as synonymous ,we note “identical,” which is the strictest term for absolute agreement, as “no two leaves are identical”; “equal,” which relates to things which are the same in number, magnitude, and value, as, “they , received equal shares”; and “equivalent,” which applies to things which amount to the same thing in worth, force, and import, as, “the estate was divided into four parts of equivalent value.” “Tantamount,” however, .is generally applied to other than material things, as, “such a speech was tantamount to failure.” Tan-ta-mount is accented on the first syllable; sound first a as in am, second as in sofa. “A usage nearly tantamount to constitutional
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Southland Times, Issue 21088, 21 May 1930, Page 6
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178A WORD A DAY. Southland Times, Issue 21088, 21 May 1930, Page 6
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