((by Mark Nichol))
What’s the difference between existent and extant? It might be more appropriate to ask, what’s the difference between exists and “is extant”?Existent usually seems awkward to me; exists or “to exist” often seems more suitable. (Even a comparative sentence such as “Unicorns are just as existent as umbrellas” seems odd — and not just because of the subject matter; though the meaning is not exactly the same, I would instead write, “Unicorns are just as likely to exist as umbrellas.”)
The root word for both terms is exist, from the Latin term existere, which means “to emerge” or “to stand forth” (hence the ex- element, which means “out of” or “from”), as well as “appear” or “be.”
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