instance

• enstance, enstaunce, instaunce (all obsolete)

From Middle French instance, from Latin instantia (“a being near, presence, also perseverance, earnestness, importunity, urgency”), from instans (“urgent”); see instant.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪnstəns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

instance (plural instances)

1. (obsolete) Urgency of manner or words; an urgent request; insistence. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     I know one very well alied, to whom, at the instance of a brother of his […], I spake to that purpose […].

   • (Can we date this quote by Sir Walter Scott?)

     […] undertook at her instance to restore them.

2. (obsolete) A token; a sign; a symptom or indication.

   It sends some precious instance of itself/ After the thing it loves. Hamlet IV. v. ca. 1602

3. (obsolete) That which is urgent; motive.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     The instances that second marriage move
     Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.

4. Occasion; order of occurrence.
   • (Can we date this quote by Sir M. Hale?)

     These seem as if, in the time of Edward I., they were drawn up into the form of a law, in the first instance.

5. A case offered as an exemplification or a precedent; an illustrative example. [from 16th c.]
   • (Can we date this quote by Atterbury?)

     most remarkable instances of suffering

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     :

     sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that loved a maid at Corinth whom he never saw […]

6. One of a series of recurring occasions, cases, essentially the same.
   • 2006, Robert Spaemann, Persons: The Difference Between 'someone' and 'something', page 115:

     One's own death is an 'accidental' event, simply another instance of the general rule that human beings die.

   • 2010, Kenneth Anderson, How to Change Your Drinking: a Harm Reduction Guide to Alcohol, page 59:

     If you choose to drink again the best way to avoid another instance of withdrawal is to avoid drinking two days in a row.

   • 2010, The Guardian, 11 Oct 2010:

     The organisations claim fraudsters are targeting properties belonging to both individuals and companies, in some instances using forged documents.

7. (obsolete) A piece of evidence; a proof or sign (of something). [16th-18th c.]
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors:

     The reason that I gather he is mad, Besides this present instance of his rage, Is a mad tale he told to day at dinner [...].

8. (computing) In object-oriented programming: a created object, one that has had memory allocated for local data storage; an instantiation of a class. [from 20th c.]
9. (massively multiplayer online games) A dungeon or other area that is duplicated for each player, or each party of players, that enters it, so that each player or party has a private copy of the area, isolated from other players.
   • 2006 September 1, "Dan" (username), "Re: DPS Classes: Why should I heal you?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

     As long as the most difficult instance you've tried is Gnomeregan, you're never going to be credible talking about 'difficult encounters'.

   • 2010, William Sims Bainbridge, Online Multiplayer Games, Morgan & Claypool, →ISBN, page 26:

     For example, when a team of five players enters the Sunken Temple instance in World of Warcraft, they will battle many monsters, but they will not encounter other players even though several teams of players may be experiencing the Sunken Temple at the same time.

   • 2012, anonymous gamer quoted in Andrew Ee & Hichang Cho, "What Makes an MMORPG Leader? A Social Cognitive Theory-Based Approach to Understanding the Formation of Leadership Capabilities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games", Eludamos, volume 6, page 31:

     Beating a difficult instance becomes second nature after running through it…a few times, with good leaders knowing exactly what to do and how to co-ordinate member actions.

10. (massively multiplayer online games) An individual copy of such a dungeon or other area.
    • 2005 January 11, Patrick B., "Re: Instance dungeons", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      The instance is created for the group that enters it.

    • 2005 December 6, "Rene" (username), "Re: Does group leader affect drops?", in alt.games.warcraft, Usenet:

      As soon as the first player enters (spawns) a new instance, it appears that the loottable is somehow chosen.

    • 2010, Anthony Steed & Manuel Fradinho Oliveira, Networked Graphics: Building Networked Games and Virtual Environments, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 398:

      A castle on the eastern edge of the island spawns a new instance whenever a party of players enters.

• (computing) closure, class, object

instance (third-person singular simple present instances, present participle instancing, simple past and past participle instanced)

1. (transitive) To mention as a case or example; to refer to; to cite

   to instance a fact

   • 1946, E. M. Butler, Rainer Maria Rilke, p. 404

     The poems which I have instanced are concrete and relatively glaring examples of the intangible difference which the change of language made in Rilke's visions .

2. (intransitive) To cite an example as proof; to exemplify.

• instance in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• instance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• ancients, canniest, cantines, catenins, insectan, tenascin

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃s.tɑ̃s/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

From Latin instantia

instance f (plural instances)

1. (often in the plural) urgent demand, insistence, plea
2. authority, forum, agency, body
3. (law) legal proceedings, prosecution process
4. (object-oriented programming) instance

• en instance
• tribunal d'instance
• première instance

A derivative of etymology 1, but reborrowed from English.

instance f (plural instances)

1. (computing) instance

• cantines

• “instance” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).