Eminent means highly respected at the top of a profession. An eminent surgeon, eminent historian, eminently sensible.
It is formal praise and belongs to obituaries, introductions and citations. Eminently, oddly, has drifted to mean simply very — eminently sensible, eminently readable — and is far commoner than the adjective. Note the near-neighbours: imminent means about to happen and immanent means inherent, and all three are confused regularly. Eminent domain is the American term for compulsory purchase.
1adjectiveeminentHighly respected at the top of a profession.
“The book was reviewed by an eminent historian from Oxford.”
synonyms: distinguished, renowned
eminent is a quality of distinction.
Also accepted in games: distinguished
EMInent → they all MEAN one man
Ask who the best doctor in the city is, and every single person you ask will mean the same man.
hooks ontomean
Latin eminere means to stand out or project, from ex plus a root related to mons, a mountain. Prominent and imminent are built from the same standing-out.
Proto-Indo-European
*men-
Middle French
éminent
English, today
eminent
Built from
From Middle French éminent, from Latin - present participle ēminēns, ēminentis, from verb ēmineō (“to project, protrude”), from ex- (“out of, from”) + mineō, related to mons (English mount). Compare with imminent. Unrelated to emanate, which is instead from mānō (“to flow”). Displaced native deal.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA