The In’s and Out’s of Eminently vs Imminently

[4-minute read]

An online film review gushes that This movie is imminently watchable. I suppose the reviewer meant that she was about to watch it but had not done so yet. Her watching was imminent, which means that it would likely happen soon.

Or did she mean that the film was eminently watchable, in the sense that it was very watchable or watchable to a high degree?

Seeing people confuse these different words vexes me like nails scraping across a chalkboard (remember those?). We’ll have to develop new metaphors for annoyingness for a generation that has seen only SmartBoards or whiteboards. But I digress.

Eminent Means Outstanding

Something is eminent when it is well-known, highly respected, or remarkable. We often use it to describe someone highly skilled or distinguished in their field: an eminent psychology scholar or an eminent physicist.

Eminent draws its roots from the Latin prefix “ex,” meaning “out” and “min” from the word for “to project.” So something is eminent when it stands out from the crowd; it projects out.

Imminent Means Soon

In contrast, imminent comes from the Latin word imminentem, meaning “to overhang, be near to, or to be about to happen. Its prefix is “in” meaning “into, on, upon” and it has the same root as above, “min” meaning to jut out. The English word mount is related to this root.

So something eminent is jutting out, and something imminent is hanging over.

As Different as In and Out

Fast forward to modern English: The eminent person stands out. When we say something is eminently readable, watchable, enjoyable, and the like, we are saying that it is a superior achievement.

Something imminent is nearby, about to happen — its likelihood is hanging over us. An event is imminent when it will happen soon. Something that is occurring imminently is about to happen. When a woman is nine months pregnant, her child’s birth is imminent. When the Uber driver signals that he is turning our corner, he will be arriving imminently (we hope).

In short, these words are as different as the difference between in and out.

And I hope that this Writamin makes the difference eminently clear.