Words I didn’t know, Part II

Exigent

(adjective)

[EK�sah�jahnt]

1. requiring immediate aid or action; urgent; pressing: “I understand that you’ve driven with faulty brakes for several weeks now without incident, but you don’t want to wait for the problem to become any more exigent.”

2. requiring significant effort or expense; demanding

adverb form: exigently

Origin:

Approximately 1670; a back formation of English, ‘exigency’; from Middle English, ‘exigence’; borrowed from Middle French, ‘exigence’; from Late Latin, ‘exigentia’; from Latin, ‘exigentem’ (nominative ‘exigens’), from ‘exigere’: to demand.