incumbent

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English

WOTD – 6 January 2025

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ɪnˈkʌmb(ə)nt/, /ɪŋ-/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ɪnˈkʌmbənt/, /ɪŋ-/
  • Audio (GA):(file)
  • Hyphenation: in‧cumb‧ent

Etymology 1

From Latin incumbentem, the accusative singular of incumbēns (“reclining”), the present active participle of incumbō (“to lay upon, to lean or recline on; to fall upon, to press down on”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘against; into; on, upon’) + *cumbō (“to lie down, recline”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb-).[1]

Adjective

incumbent (comparative more incumbent, superlative most incumbent)

  1. (Used with "on" or "upon") Imposed on someone as an obligation, especially due to one's office.
    Proper behavior is incumbent on all holders of positions of trust.
    • December 22 1678, Thomas Sprat, A Sermon Preached before the King at White-Hall
      all men truly Zelous , will […] endeavor to perform the first kind of good Works alwaies; those, I mean, that are incumbent on all Christians
  2. Lying; resting; reclining; recumbent.
  3. Prevalent, prevailing, predominant.
  4. (botany, geology) Resting on something else; in botany, said of anthers when lying on the inner side of the filament, or of cotyledons when the radicle lies against the back of one of them[2]
  5. (zoology) Bent downwards so that the ends touch, or rest on, something else.
    the incumbent toe of a bird
  6. Being the current holder of an office or a title.
    If the incumbent senator dies, he is replaced by a person appointed by the governor.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English incumbent, encumbent (“holder of an ecclesiastical benefice, dean, parson, etc.; cleric (?)”),[3] from Medieval Latin incumbēns (“holder of a church position”), from incumbō (“to obtain; to possess”),[4][5] from Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 2 should be a valid language, etymology language or family code; the value "incumbō" is not valid. See WT:LOL, WT:LOL/E and WT:LOF.: see etymology 1.

Noun

incumbent (plural incumbents)

  1. The current holder of an office, such as ecclesiastical benefice or an elected office.
    • 2012, The Economist, October 6, 2012 issue, The first presidential debate: Back in the centre, back in the game
      Mr Obama’s problems were partly structural. An incumbent must defend the realities and compromises of government, while a challenger is freer to promise the earth, details to follow. Mr Obama’s odd solution was to play both incumbent and challenger, jumping from a defence of his record to indignation at such ills as over-crowded classrooms and tax breaks for big oil companies.
    • 2022 November 16, Philip Haigh, “Trans-Pennine... transformative”, in RAIL, number 970, page 43:
      Just as interest grew under previous incumbent-but-one Grant Shapps, so interest could wane under new Transport Secretary Mark Harper.
  2. (business) A holder of a position as supplier to a market or market segment that allows the holder to earn above-normal profits.
    • 2012, The Economist, September 29 2012 issue, Schumpeter: Fixing the capitalist machine
      American capitalism is becoming like its European cousin: established firms with the scale and scope to deal with a growing thicket of regulations are doing well, but new companies are withering on the vine or selling themselves to incumbents.
Translations

References

  1. ^ Compare “incumbent, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “incumbent, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ Template:R:Gray First
  3. ^ “incumbent, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ incumbens 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)
  5. ^ Compare “incumbent, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “incumbent, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Latin

Verb

incumbent

  1. third-person plural future active indicative of incumbō
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