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From New Latin īnstāntāneus, from Latin īnstantem.
instantaneous (not comparable)
- Occurring, arising, or functioning without any delay; happening within an imperceptibly brief period of time. [from 17th c.]
- Synonyms: immediate, instant; see also Thesaurus:instantaneous
1631, William Twisse, chapter VI, in A Discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie, page 223:
This instantaneous motion is supposed by you, to be infinitely swift.
1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “Fresh Mortifications, or a Demonstration that Seeming Calamities may be Real Blessings”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 137:
However, no lovers in romance ever cemented a more inſtantaneous friendſhip.
1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, →OCLC; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, →OCLC, pages 68–69:
I walk always with my right hand closed round the india-rubber ball which I have in my trouser pocket. The pressing of this ball actuates a detonator inside the flask I carry in my pocket. It's the principle of the pneumatic instantaneous shutter for a camera lens.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 129:
The penis is the perfectly obvious and natural symbol of instantaneous time.
occurring, arising, or functioning without any delay; happening within an imperceptibly brief period of time
- Armenian: վայրկենական (hy) (vayrkenakan), րոպեական (hy) (ropeakan)
- Bulgarian: моментен (bg) (momenten), незабавен (bg) (nezabaven)
- Catalan: instantani (ca)
- Finnish: välitön (fi), silmänräpäyksellinen (fi), äkillinen (fi), hetkellinen (fi)
- French: instantané (fr)
- German: augenblicklich (de), unverzüglich (de)
- Hungarian: pillanatnyi (hu), azonnali (hu), (as a technical term) pontszerű (hu), mozzanatos (hu)
- Ido: instantala (io)
- Irish: láithreach
- Italian: istantaneo (it)
- Malay: seketika
- Polish: momentalny (pl), chwilowy (pl)
- Portuguese: instantâneo (pt)
- Romanian: instantaneu (ro) m, momentan (ro) m
- Russian: мгнове́нный (ru) (mgnovénnyj), момента́льный (ru) (momentálʹnyj)
- Spanish: instantáneo (es)
- Swedish: omedelbar (sv), ögonblicklig (sv)
- Tagalog: iglapin
- instantaneous in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- “instantaneous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “instantaneous”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- "instantaneous" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
- "instantaneous" in Compact Oxford English Dictionary, (Oxford University Press, 2007)
- Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)