momentum

From Latin mōmentum. Doublet of moment and movement.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌmoʊˈmɛntəm/

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momentum (countable and uncountable, plural momentums or momenta)

1. (physics) Of a body in motion: the tendency of a body to maintain its inertial motion; the product of its mass and velocity, or the vector sum of the products of its masses and velocities.
2. (physics) Strength or force gained by motion or movement.
3. The impetus, either of a body in motion, or of an idea or course of events; a moment.
   • 1843, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse, The Old Apple Dealer:

     The travellers swarm forth from the cars. All are full of the momentum which they have caught from their mode of conveyance.

   • 1882, Thomas Hardy, chapter II, in Two on a Tower. A Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 31:

     Their intention to become husband and wife, at first halting and timorous, had accumulated momentum with the lapse of hours, till it now bore down every obstacle in its course.

   • 2013 September 14, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)‎, page R29:

     Though his account of written communication over the past 5,000 years necessarily has a powerful forward momentum, his diversions down the fascinating byways of the subject are irresistible ...

• wind at one's back

Internationalism, learned borrowing from Latin mōmentum.

• IPA^(key): /mo.ˈmɛn.tʊm/
• Rhymes: -tʊm, -ʊm, -m
• Hyphenation: mo‧men‧tum

momentum (plural momentum-momentum, first-person possessive momentumku, second-person possessive momentummu, third-person possessive momentumnya)

1. momentum:
   1. (mechanics) of a body in motion: the tendency of a body to maintain its inertial motion; the product of its mass and velocity, or the vector sum of the products of its masses and velocities.

      Synonyms: impuls, pusa

   2. moment
   3. chance

      Synonyms: kans, kesempatan

• “momentum” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From *movimentum (compare later Medieval Latin movimentum), from Proto-Italic *mowementom. Equivalent to moveō (“move, set in motion; excite”) + -mentum (“suffix used to forming nouns from verbs”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /moːˈmen.tum/, [moːˈmɛn̪t̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /moˈmen.tum/, [moˈmɛn̪t̪um]

mōmentum n (genitive mōmentī); second declension

1. movement, motion, impulse; course
2. change, revolution, movement, disturbance
3. particle, part, point
4. (of time) brief space, moment (in time), short time

   Synonym: vestīgium

5. cause, circumstance
6. weight, influence, importance

   Synonyms: importantia, gravitās, pondus, opportūnitās

   mōmentum facere/habere ― to have importance, to exercise influence

   maximē mōmentī ― most important

7. (New Latin, physics) momentum, quantity of motion [from 18th c.]
8. (New Latin, physics, mechanics) moment (product of a distance and physical quantity) [from 15th c.]

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• “momentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “momentum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• momentum in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2024), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication
• momentum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• momentum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • at the important moment: momento temporis
    
  • important results are often produced by trivial causes: ex parvis saepe magnarum rerum momenta pendent
    
  • to be of great (no) importance: magni (nullius) momenti esse
    
  • to determine the issue of; to turn the scale: momentum afferre ad aliquid