Whenever I sit down to read a book, I make sure I have a
sharpened pencil at hand. Over the years, I have developed the noble habit of
correcting any errors I find for the benefit of the next reader. Recently, I ran across the
word “immanent.” Immediately, I concluded that I had found a misspelling of
either “imminent”
or “eminent.”
However, before I reached for my pencil, I reached for my dictionary, where to
my surprise, I found that “immanent”
is a word, which the on-line American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), defines as
“existing or remaining within; inherent.”
The quality of “inherent” is important to understanding the
concept of “immanent.” For example, I could not properly say, “I am immanent
today,” in order to convey that I stayed indoors all day in my pajamas,
drinking champagne and eating strawberries dipped in chocolate. (Actually, the
word to describe that activity would be “decadent”!) A Google search reveals
that the concept of “immanence” frequently refers to philosophical attitudes,
specifically relating to religion and God. In my case, I can say I have an
immanent belief in Shakespeare.
Not surprisingly, “immanent” comes from a Latin word meaning
“to remain within.” Digging deeper into the history of the word, I found that
“immanent” is a sibling of the words “mansion,” “manor,” “ménage,” and
“permanent.” However, even though these words are related, we find some
contradictions in meanings. While “immanent” involves intangible relationships,
the other words involve tangible places or dwellings, although Elvis recorded a
song, “In
My Father’s House (Are Many Mansions),” combining the “immanent” nature of
God with a mansion in heaven.
I also found that “immanent” is a cousin of “imminent” and
“eminent”, through the Indo-European root, “men-“ However, with regards to “immanent,” “men-“
means “to remain,” but with regards to “imminent” and “eminent,” it means“ to “project,
jut, threaten.” So while the words are related, the meanings of “immanent” and
“imminent” and “eminent” go in opposite directions, from sticking out to
staying in—a family feud of words, of sorts.
In closing, I want to relate a story of consulting the
dictionary first from my junior high school years. When I was in 9th
grade algebra class, my teacher, Miss Tanner, wrote the word “horizontal” on
the chalk board. My immediate reaction was she had spelled it wrong because the
word sounded to me like “horizonnal.” Wisely, after class I went straight to my
English classroom to look up the word. Indeed, Miss Tanner had spelled
“horizontal” correctly. I went on that year to win the class spelling bee by
knowing the difference between “stationary” and “stationery.” Now, when I have
to say the word “horizontal,” I make sure to enunciate the “t” sound.
LAGNIAPPE: Since I used the word “immediate”
a few times in this blog entry, I wondered if it might be related to all of the
“im-“ words tossed about in this blog. It is not. “Immediate” comes from the
prefix “im-“ meaning “not,” and the base “mediate” meaning “in the middle.” Put
together, these parts of words mean “not in the middle,” or more specifically
“occurring at once,” “near the present time,” or “close at hand.”
