Answer: Impatiens vs. Impatience

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Question: What is the difference between 'inpatiens' and 'impatience?'



These words sound similar but have very different definitions. "Impatience," meaning, 'lacking patience,' is probably the word we're most familiar with:

"When are those dumplings gonna be ready, Hakkai?" Goku said, bouncing on his heels. "It smells so good."

"It won't taste very good if you try eating them now," Hakkai chided. "Really, you must start working on your impatience."

"I'm not impatient!" Goku protested. "I'm just hungry."

Sanzo thwacked him, none too gently, with his fan. "You're impatient and hungry, moron."

Impatiens, on the other hand, are these lovely flowers:



They're very pretty, and there are between 850 and 1000 different wild and domesticated varieties (impatiens are both the singular and the plural term for these plants). They grow in the tropics and in much of the Northern Hemisphere. If you live as far north as I do, the domestic ones are very pretty through spring, summer and fall, and then turn into puddles of dead vegetation when the first hard frost hits.

How did two words so different end up looking and sounding so similar? They have the same Latin root. Impatien is the original Latin for 'impatient,' probably because many of those flowers are short-lived.

"What's this doing here?" Tenpou said, poking experimentally at the plant Goku had placed on his desk.

"Kenren told me to bring it to you," the boy said. "They're from Down Below. Aren't they pretty? They're called 'impatient.'"

"I believe you mean 'impatien'," Tenpou corrected.

"I don't think so, 'cause he said they were just like you."

"Did he?" Tenpou said mildly.

So how can you remember which word to use when? If you're more patient, you wait for the 't' at the end of 'impatient.' (I know, it's silly, but it just might work....)