different between character vs chest

English

Etymology

From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “type, nature, character”), from ??????? (kharáss?, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??(?)kt?/, /?kæ?(?)kt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt?/
• Hyphenation: char?ac?ter

Noun

character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)

1. (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
2. (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.

3. (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.

   • A man of […] thoroughly subservient character

4. (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.

5. (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.

6. (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech

     It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye.

7. (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
8. (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
9. (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
10. (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.

11. (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
12. (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.

13. (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.

    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.

14. (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
15. (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.

Usage notes

Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Pages starting with “character”.

Translations

Verb

character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)

1. (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.

See also

• codepoint
• font
• glyph
• letter
• symbol
• rune
• pictogram

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /k?a?rak.ter/, [k?ä??äkt??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ka?rak.ter/, [k????kt??r]

Noun

character m (genitive charact?ris); third declension

1. branding iron
2. brand (made by a branding iron)
3. characteristic, mark, character, style

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Hungarian: karakter
• Galician: caritel; ? carácter
• Irish: carachtar
• Italian: carattere
• Old French: caractere
  • ? English: character
  • French: caractère
• Polish: charakter
  • ? Russian: ????????? (xarákter)
• Portuguese: caractere, carácter
• Sicilian: caràttiri
• Spanish: carácter

References

• character in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Noun

character m (plural characteres)

1. Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t???st/
• Rhymes: -?st

Etymology 1

From Middle English cheste, chiste, from Old English ?est, ?ist (“chest, casket; coffin; rush basket; box”), from Proto-West Germanic *kistu (“chest, box”), from Latin cista (“chest, box”), from Ancient Greek ????? (kíst?, “chest, box, basket, hamper”), from Proto-Indo-European *kisteh? (“woven container”).

Germanic cognates include Scots kist (“chest, box, trunk, coffer”), West Frisian kiste (“box, chest”), Dutch kist (“box, case, chest, coffin”), German Kiste (“box, crate, case, chest”).

Alternative forms

• chist (obsolete)

Noun

chest (plural chests)

1. A box, now usually a large strong box with a secure convex lid.
2. (obsolete) A coffin.
3. The place in which public money is kept; a treasury.

4. A chest of drawers.
6. (anatomy) The portion of the front of the human body from the base of the neck to the top of the abdomen; the thorax. Also the analogous area in other animals.

7. A hit or blow made with one's chest.

Synonyms

• (the thorax): breast
• (box): trunk

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

chest (third-person singular simple present chests, present participle chesting, simple past and past participle chested)

1. To hit with one's chest (front of one's body)
2. (transitive) To deposit in a chest.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To place in a coffin.

Derived terms

• chest down

Etymology 2

From Middle English chest, cheste, cheeste, cheaste, from Old English ??ast, ??as (“strife, quarrel, quarrelling, contention, murmuring, sedition, scandal; reproof”). Related to Old Frisian k?se (“strife, contention”), Old Saxon caest (“quarrel, dispute”), Old High German k?sa (“speech, story, account”).

Noun

chest (plural chests)

1. Debate; quarrel; strife; enmity.

Anagrams

• Tesch, chets, techs

Friulian

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *(ec)cu istu, from Latin eccum istum. Compare Ladin chest, Romansch quest, Italian questo, Romanian acest, French cet, Catalan aquest.

Pronoun

chest m (f cheste, m pl chescj, f pl chestis)

1. this

See also

• chel

Ladin

Alternative forms

• chëst

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccu istu, from Latin eccum istum. Compare Friulian chest, Romansch quest, Italian questo.

Adjective

chest m (feminine singular chesta, masculine plural chisc, feminine plural chestes)

1. this
2. (in the plural) these

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English ?east, ceas (“quarrel, strife”).

Alternative forms

• cheste, cheeste, cheaste, chyaste, chast

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t???st/
• Rhymes: -??st

Noun

chest (plural chestes)

2. fighting, strife, battle
3. quarrelling, disputation
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, II:

     And þe Erldome of enuye · and wratthe togideres / With þe chastelet of chest · and chateryng oute of resoun.

4. (rare) turmoil, discord

Descendants

• English: chest

References

• “ch?st, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-26.

Etymology 2

From Old French geste.

Noun

chest

2. Alternative form of geste (“tale”)

Etymology 3

From Old English ?est.

Noun

chest

2. Alternative form of cheste (“chest”)

Old French

Adjective

chest m (oblique and nominative feminine singular cheste)

1. Picardy form of cist

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??st/

Verb

chest

1. Aspirate mutation of cest.

Mutation