tantamount •
\TAN-tuh-mount\ • adjective : equivalent
in value, significance, or effect
Examples: The boss had
told Morris that he was being reassigned to the shipping department, and he knew that it was tantamount to a
demotion.
"Mrs. Clinton
declined an invitation to speak, organizers said. Democratic analysts said that
was no surprise—for her to attend such a gathering would have been tantamount
to announcing a presidential run, which she is not yet ready to do." —
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New
York
Times, July 19, 2014
Did you know? Tantamount
comes from the Anglo-French phrase tant amunter, meaning "to
amount to as
much." This phrase comes from the Old French tant, meaning "so
much" or "as much," and amounter, meaning "to ascend"
or "to add up to." When tantamount first entered
English, it was used
similarly to the Anglo-French phrase, as a verb meaning "to be
equivalent." "His not denying tant-amounteth to the affirming of the
matter," wrote clergyman Thomas Fuller in 1659, for example. There was
also a noun tantamount in the 17th century, but the adjective is the only commonly used form of the term nowadays.
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