ident

An identification.

Adjective

  1. Diligent; persistent.

Origin

From a later form of ithand, itself an alteration (due to assimilation to suffix -and) of Middle English ithen, from Old Norse iðinn (“assiduous, diligent”), from iðja, iðna (“to do, perform”), from ið (“a restless motion”), equivalent to ithe + -and and/or ithe + -en. Cognate with Icelandic iðinn (“diligent”), Norwegian idig (“busy”), Danish id (“pursuit, calling, business”). More at ithand.

Forms

more ident most ident eident

Derived

idently

Noun

  1. An identification.
    • Well, that's the priority. Get the ident. - 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 37:
  2. A brief audio or audiovisual sequence serving to identify the broadcaster.
    • In 1999 Chaudoir and fellow BBC designer Tim Platt were given the task of rebranding the existing BBC2 idents. - 2002, Jane Austin, Graphic Originals:
  3. A protocol serving to identify the user of a particular TCP connection, used especially on IRC networks.
    • […] the intruder installed an IRC bot and French ident daemon to reply to IRC servers with a name other than root. - 2004, Eoghan Casey, Digital Evidence and Computer Crime:
  4. An identifier.

Origin

A shortened form of identification.

Forms

idents

Verb

  1. To activate the aircraft transponder identification feature.

Origin

A shortened form of identify.

Forms

idents identing idented