different between awkward vs wallflower

English

Etymology

From awk (“odd, clumsy”) +? -ward.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???kw?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??kw?d/
• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /??kw?d/
• Hyphenation: awk?ward

Adverb

awkward (comparative more awkward, superlative most awkward)

1. (obsolete) In a backwards direction.
   • :

     Than groned the knyght for his grymme woundis, and gyrdis to Sir Gawayne and awkewarde hym strykes, and […] kut thorow a vayne […].

Adjective

awkward (comparative awkwarder or more awkward, superlative awkwardest or most awkward)

1. Lacking dexterity in the use of the hands, or of instruments.

   Synonyms: clumsy, lubberly, ungraceful, unhandy

   Antonyms: dexterous, gainly, graceful, handy, skillful

2. Not easily managed or effected; embarrassing.

3. Lacking social skills, or uncomfortable with social interaction.

   Synonym: maladroit

   Antonyms: amiable, cool

4. Perverse; adverse; difficult to handle.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

awkward (plural awkwards)

1. Someone or something that is awkward.

English

Etymology

wall +? flower

Alternative forms

• wall-flower
• wall flower

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w??l.?fl??.?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?w?l.?fl??.?/, /?w?l.?fl??.?/

Noun

wallflower (plural wallflowers)

1. Any of several short-lived herbs or shrubs of the Erysimum genus with bright yellow to red flowers.
2. Gastrolobium grandiflorum, a poisonous bushy shrub, endemic to Australia.
3. A person who does not dance at a party, due to shyness or unpopularity; by extension, anyone who is left on the sidelines while an activity takes place.
   • 1878, Fannie Bean, Dr. Mortimer's Patient: A Novel, page 23:

     Mrs. Galbraith shook all over with laughter as she replied, “Hear that boy, asking me to dance ! I'm content to be a wallflower, now-a-days."

   • 1885, The Freemason's Repository, page 133:

     And now, by virtue of his office, he is entitled to a seat in the Grand Lodge. Is it any wonder he is a wall-flower there  […]

   • 1897, Mrs. C. E. Humphry, Manners for Women, page 53:

     It is a triumph, of course, to have plenty of partners, and not to be a wallflower for a single dance.

   • 1913, Plasterer, page 8:

     Jack Breen was a wallflower; still at the same time I noticed he was cultivating an ornamental smile — a Jack of Trumps, you bet.

   • 1921, Collier's, page 3:

     She was a wallflower in a sleepy little town itself a wallflower. She was a joke to the village wits and a byword to the village belles.

   • 2017, Sam Wasson, Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (?ISBN), page 94:

     Second City was a wallflower at the show business ball. It needed to be. Improvisers needed to fail, and fail safely; and in the Midwest, far from Broadway and Hollywood, they really could. Second-class stature was the secret ingredient, ...

4. (informal) Any person who is socially awkward, shy, or reserved.
   • 2019, Liz Tyner, To Win a Wallflower, Harlequin (?ISBN)

     I've always been a wallflower, even in my own home. But, I'm willing to learn to be a part of your world. I would like to. I have already told my parents that I want to go to soirées.

Translations

Verb

wallflower (third-person singular simple present wallflowers, present participle wallflowering, simple past and past participle wallflowered)

1. (intransitive) To stand shyly apart from a dance, waiting to be asked to join in.
   • 2010, Alexandra Carter, Janet O'Shea, The Routledge Dance Studies Reader (page 237)

     […] the idea that a full tango experience is impossible without the presence of wallflowers and without the threat of wallflowering as the potential dancers enter the tango club.

Further reading

• Erysimum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• wallflower on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• “wallflower”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.