diffident
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Latin diffīdentem, present participle of diffīdere (“to mistrust”). Doublet of defiant.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]diffident (comparative more diffident, superlative most diffident)
- (archaic) Lacking confidence in others; distrustful.
- Lacking self-confidence; timid; modest
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV:
- Having therefore—but hold, as we are diffident of our own abilities, let us here invite a superior power to our assistance.
- 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume I, chapter 5:
- Emma is spoiled by being the cleverest of her family. At ten years old, she had the misfortune of being able to answer questions which puzzled her sister at seventeen. She was always quick and assured: Isabella slow and diffident.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VIII:
- At an early point in these exchanges I had started to sidle to the door, and I now sidled through it, rather like a diffident crab on some sandy beach trying to avoid the attentions of a child with a spade.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]distrustful
|
lacking confidence in oneself
|
Latin
[edit]Verb
[edit]diffīdent
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰeydʰ-
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with quotations
- en:Personality
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms