different between character vs display

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

Etymology

From Middle English displayen, from Anglo-Norman despleier and Old French despleier, desploiier, from Medieval Latin displicare (“to unfold, display”), from Latin dis- (“apart”) + plic?re (“to fold”). Doublet of deploy.

Pronunciation

• enPR: d?spl??, IPA^(key): /d?s?ple?/
• Rhymes: -e?
• Hyphenation: dis?play

Noun

display (countable and uncountable, plural displays)

1. A show or spectacle.

2. A piece of work to be presented visually.

3. A device, furniture or marketing-oriented bulk packaging for visual presentation for sales promotion.
4. (computing) An electronic screen that shows graphics or text.
5. (computing) The presentation of information for visual or tactile reception.
6. (travel, aviation, in a reservation system) The asterisk symbol, used to denote that the following information will be displayed, eg, *H will "display history".

Descendants

• ? Russian: ???????? (displéj)
  • ? Kazakh: ??????? (dïspley)

Translations

See also

Verb

display (third-person singular simple present displays, present participle displaying, simple past and past participle displayed)

1. (transitive) To show conspicuously; to exhibit; to demonstrate; to manifest.
2. (intransitive) To make a display; to act as one making a show or demonstration.
3. (military) To extend the front of (a column), bringing it into line.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Farrow to this entry?)

4. (printing, dated) To make conspicuous by using large or prominent type.
5. (obsolete) To discover; to descry.
6. (obsolete) To spread out, to unfurl.

   Synonym: splay

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.v:

     The wearie Traueiler, wandring that way, / Therein did often quench his thristy heat, / And then by it his wearie limbes display, / Whiles creeping slomber made him to forget / His former paine [...].

Translations

Further reading

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

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English display.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?s?ple?/, /?d?s.ple?/
• Hyphenation: dis?play
• Rhymes: -e?

Noun

display m or n (plural displays, diminutive displaytje n)

1. display (screen)

Portuguese

Etymology

From English display.

Noun

display m (plural displays)

1. display (electronic screen)

   Synonyms: ecrã, tela

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:display.

Spanish

Etymology

From English display.

Noun

display m (plural displays)

1. display