What is the correct linguistic discrimination and usage for both words urgent and exigent?

Question

What is the correct linguistic discrimination and usage for both words urgent and exigent? Since exigent is a good word to write on letters or packages, since everyone else writes "urgent" or "rush."?

Answer 1

If something is urgent it requires immediate attention or action. If you break your leg, you'll need urgent attention at the hospital — that means the doctors will tend to you without delay.



Urgent comes from the Latin word urgentem, meaning "to press hard, urge." You can see that urgent contains the word urge, meaning "to demand or insist." When you get an urgent message, you need to drop what you're doing to deal with it. An urgent need, like hunger, is a pressing one. If you're a music fan, you might know the song "Urgent" by the band Foreigner. The song's lyrics "make it fast, make it urgent" and its frenetic style help define the word.



https://www.wordnik.com/words/urgent



When you describe something as exigent, you are saying it requires attention: it can't be ignored.



Exigent, which means "demanding attention," comes from the Latin for "driving out." If there's a runaway train driving straight at you, that's an exigent situation — not a good time to stop and write a poem. When circumstances become exigent, it's time to act. When exigent questions arise, an answer is necessary. You can also use exigent for a person who demands attention, usually by complaining. If you've ever worked as a waiter, you've surely dealt with an exigent customer.



http://vocabulary-vocabulary.com/dictionary/exigent.php

Answer 2

urgent

(Of a state or situation) requiring immediate action or attention: the situation is far more urgent than politicians are admitting

More example sentences



Mr. Wright concluded that there was nothing urgent requiring immediate attention.

The question of professional refereeing is an urgent issue that needs immediate attention.

These are the urgent issues that need attention, with special reference also to gender.

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Synonyms

1.1(Of action or an event) done or arranged in response to a pressing or critical situation: she needs urgent treatment

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I don't think I have anything to do that has an urgent deadline or immediately requires my attention.

The child required urgent medical attention but did not develop long term adverse effects.

The temples require urgent restoration by skilled craftsmen who work on heritage structures.

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1.2(Of a person or their manner) earnest and persistent in response to a pressing situation: an urgent whisper

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He was urgent, almost angry, in his passion and the whole thing left me feeling unfulfilled.

The tone of your letter can be folksy and conversational or urgent and earnest.



http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/urgent



exigent

formal

Pressing; demanding: the exigent demands of the music took a toll on her voice

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Once they alerted to the car, the cops had reasonable suspicion plus exigent circumstances (the danger), so they had extra good justification to search.

The scheme is a thoughtful and original response to what must be the increasingly exigent demands of the London restaurateur who has to contend with the changing fashions of a capricious clientele.

Attaining some distance from the social world and thinking about its transformation from that vantage point may be useful, even if return to life within this social world, or some successor of it, seems ethically and practically exigent.



http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/exigent

Answer 3

Exigent does not really mean urgent in that sense, it means demanding, exacting. So it is not a good word to write on a package (also the delivery man is unlikely to even know the word!)



When I worked in a bank years ago our day finished at 5pm unless "the exigencies of the office" required us to work later (according to the staff handbook).

Answer 4

urgent



http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/urgent



http://www.yourdictionary.com/urgent



exigent



https://www.wordnik.com/words/exigent

Answer 5

It means total boy hugger so if your son is posting this it means he's gay.