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EMINENT/IMMINENT/IMMANENT |
By far the most common of these words is “eminent,” meaning “prominent,
famous.” “Imminent,” in phrases like “facing imminent disaster,” means
“threatening.” It comes from Latin minere, meaning “to project or
overhang.” Think of a mine threatening to cave in. Positive events can
also be imminent: they just need to be coming soon. The rarest of the
three is “immanent,” used by philosophers to mean “inherent” and by
theologians to mean “present throughout the universe” when referring to
God. It comes from Latin manere, “remain.” Think of God creating man in
his own image.
When a government exercises its power over private property it is drawing on its eminent status in society, so the proper legal phrase is “eminent domain.”
