Attendance - attendants
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Attendance and attendants sound the same, except in the most careful speech. All such words are derived from the same root, the verb 'to attend', originally Latin ad- 'to' and tendere, 'to stretch'. The root meaning is 'to stretch [one's mind] towards something', and hence 'to fix [one's attention] on something.' There are two main branches of meaning in Present-day English.
- 'To pay attention to', 'to direct the mind toward', 'to concentrate the interest [or brain, or ears, etc] on'. The abstract noun for this meaning of the verb is always attention.
- 'To be present at', in general; more narrowly, 'to accompany as a servant', 'to be a junior member of the group around a more important person'. To attend to someone's needs, or wishes, is to look after that person
- (Obsolete meanings include the equivalent of French attendre 'to wait for', 'to expect'. Do not use this faux ami.)
- So the abstract noun Attendance may mean:
- 'the state of being present', as in "Students' attendance at lectures will be recorded" (and this may be in an attendance register).
- Attendance in a development of this sense may also be used to mean the numbers in an audience, or at a sports match, less formally 'the gate'. "Attendance at City's last game fell below 20,000."
- the position, or state, of a person who is serving as a junior, etc. This can be in such phrases as 'in attendance [up]on', 'to dance attendance on' (this is rather pejorative, with connotations of servile obedience on the part of the junior).
- An attendance allowance may be paid a) to members of certain voluntary bodies as compensation for loss of earnings, etc, if they attend a meeting; or b) to certain carers as a reward for attending to the needs, e.g. of a disabled person.
- 'the state of being present', as in "Students' attendance at lectures will be recorded" (and this may be in an attendance register).
- The noun 'an attendant' means 'someone who is present at an event in order to be of service to a superior', or 'to serve the purposes of an organization'. Various jobs are called 'flight attendants', 'car park attendant', etc.
- The better noun for someone who is present at an occasion or event is attender. (See also -ee to explain why
attendeeis not favoured, and Smallweed 16-04-05 for a more humorous explanation.)
- The better noun for someone who is present at an occasion or event is attender. (See also -ee to explain why
- The adjective attendant means 'present [at an occasion]', often as a servant.
- More figuratively, it means (of ideas or consequences, etc) 'following closely', or 'resulting from'. Harriet Martineau is quoted by OED as writing "The suffering and death attendant upon war".
- Don't confuse, by mishearing, 'a tendency' with 'attendance'. (Neither tendence nor attendancy is current English.)
AWE has a Table collecting some of the words that fall into this pattern.