different between congenial vs winsome

English

Etymology

con- +? genial

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /k?n?d??i?ni?l/

Adjective

congenial (comparative more congenial, superlative most congenial)

1. Having the same or very similar nature, personality, tastes, habits or interests.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XIX:

     No sluggish tide congenial to the glooms; / This, as it frothed by, might have been a bath / For the fiend's glowing hoof - to see the wrath / Of its black eddy bespate with flakes and spumes.

2. Friendly or sociable.

   The congenial bartender makes the Hog’s Head an inviting place to hang out during the weekends.

3. Suitable to one’s needs.
   • 1961, J. A. Philip, Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato, in Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92, page 453-468:

     What was it that made this notion of mimesis, in spite of its inherent difficulties that only the dialectical method enables him to avoid, seem so useful and congenial to Plato?

Antonyms

• uncongenial

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• conga line

English

Etymology

From Middle English wynsom, winsom, winsome, winsum, wunsum (“beautiful; agreeable, gracious, pleasant; generous; of situations: favourable, propitious”), from Old English wynsum (“joyful, merry, pleasant; winsome”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnjusam (“joyful”); synchronically analyzable as winne (“delight, joy, pleasure”) +? -some.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w?n.s(?)m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w?n.s?m/
• Hyphenation: win?some

Adjective

winsome (comparative winsomer, superlative winsomest)

1. Charming, engaging, winning; inspiring approval and trust, especially if in an innocent manner.
   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, chapter IX:

     […] lifting her winsome eyes to my face with that sort of look which turns off bad temper, even when one has all the right in the world to indulge it.

Related terms

• winly
• winne
• winsomely
• winsomeness

Translations

Further reading

• winsome (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Owenism