different between character vs grace

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 grace, from Old French grace (modern French grâce), from Latin gr?tia (“kindness, favour, esteem”), from gr?tus (“pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?erH- (“to praise, welcome”); compare grateful.

The word displaced the native Middle English held, hield (“grace”) (from Old English held, hyld (“grace”)), Middle English este (“grace, favour, pleasure”) (from Old English ?ste (“grace, kindness, favour”)), Middle English athmede(n) (“grace”) (from Old English ?adm?du (“grace”)), Middle English are, ore (“grace, mercy, honour”) (from Old English ?r (“honour, grace, kindness, mercy”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /??e?s/
• Rhymes: -e?s

Noun

grace (countable and uncountable, plural graces)

1. (countable, uncountable) Charming, pleasing qualities.
   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

   • 1783, Hugh Blair, "Critical Examniation of the Style of Mr. Addison in No. 411 of The Spectator" in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

     I have formerly given the general character of Mr. Addison's style and manner as natural and unaffected, easy and polite, and full of those graces which a flowery imagination diffuses over writing.

2. (countable) A short prayer of thanks before or after a meal.

3. (countable, card games) In the games of patience or solitaire: a special move that is normally against the rules.
4. (countable, music) A grace note.
5. (uncountable) Elegant movement; balance or poise.

6. (uncountable, finance) An allowance of time granted to a debtor during which he or she is free of at least part of his normal obligations towards the creditor.
   • 1990, Claude de Bèze, 1688 revolution in Siam: the memoir of Father de Bèze, s.j, translated by E. W. Hutchinson, University Press, page 153:

     With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days grace of life to be quit of this disloyal couple, father and son'.

8. (uncountable, theology) Free and undeserved favour, especially of God; unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or for resisting sin.

9. An act or decree of the governing body of an English university.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

grace (third-person singular simple present graces, present participle gracing, simple past and past participle graced)

1. (transitive) To adorn; to decorate; to embellish and dignify.
2. (transitive) To dignify or raise by an act of favour; to honour.

   • He might, at his pleasure, grace […] or disgrace whom he would in court.

3. (transitive) To supply with heavenly grace.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Hall to this entry?)
4. (transitive, music) To add grace notes, cadenzas, etc., to.

Synonyms

• mense

Translations

Further reading

• grace on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• cager

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French grace, from Latin gr?tia.

Alternative forms

• graz, crace, gras, grase

Pronunciation

• (Early ME) IPA^(key): /??ra?ts?/
• IPA^(key): /??ra?s(?)/

Noun

grace (plural graces or grace)

1. Various (Christian) theological meanings, usually as an attribute of God:
   1. The grace of God; divine aid or beneficence.
   2. A gift or sign of God; a demonstration of divine power.
   3. guidance, direction (especially divine)
2. luck, destiny (especially positive or beneficial)
3. niceness, esteem, positive demeanour
4. beneficence, goodwill, good intentions
5. gracefulness, elegance; aptness, competence.
6. A present; a helpful or kind act.
7. relief, relenting, forgiveness
8. A prayer, especially one preceding a meal.
9. (rare) repute, credit
10. (rare) misfortune, misadventure, doom
11. (rare, Late Middle English) unfairness, partisanship

Related terms

• graceful
• graceles
• gracen
• gracious

Descendants

• English: grace
• Scots: grace
• Yola: greash

References

• “gr?ce, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-14.

Etymology 2

From Old English græs.

Noun

grace

1. Alternative form of gras

Old French

Alternative forms

• gratia (10th century)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin gr?tia.

Noun

grace f (oblique plural graces, nominative singular grace, nominative plural graces)

1. grace; favor
2. grace; gracefulness; elegance

Descendants

• French: grâce
• ? Middle English: grace, graz, crace, gras, grase
  • English: grace
  • Scots: grace
  • Yola: greash

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (grace, supplement)
• grace on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub