Both Uses of
competent
in
Oryx and Crake
- He was admired for this, however: it showed he was good at his trade, and the children would be in competent hands.†
p. 118.6 *competent = sufficiently capable
- With so much at stake, was he afraid of failure, of being just one more incompetent nihilist?†
p. 343.9incompetent = not sufficiently capablestandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in incompetent means not and reverses the meaning of competent. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(competent) capable (able to do something in a generally satisfactory manner) -- sometimes specifically to have legal capability
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In the field of law, competent has the specialized meaning of being legally qualified to do something such as to be mentally fit to make reasonable decisions; or to have jurisdiction or authority to take an action.
In classic literature, a competency can refer to having an income or assets to support living expenses.