different between cunning vs diplomatic

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?n??
• IPA^(key): /?k?n??/

Etymology 1

From Middle English cunning, kunning, konnyng, alteration of earlier Middle English cunninde, kunnende, cunnand, from Old English cunnende, present participle of cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”), equivalent to con +? -ing. Cognate with Scots cunnand (“cunning”), German könnend (“able to do”), Icelandic kunnandi (“cunning”). More at con, can.

Adjective

cunning (comparative more cunning, superlative most cunning)

1. Sly; crafty; clever in surreptitious behaviour.

   • They are resolved to be cunning; let others run the hazard of being sincere.

2. (obsolete) Skillful, artful.

   • Esau was a cunning hunter.

   • a cunning workman
3. (obsolete) Wrought with, or exhibiting, skill or ingenuity; ingenious.

   cunning work
4. (US, colloquial, dated, New England) Cute, appealing.

   a cunning little boy

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

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:wily

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English cunning, kunnyng, partially from Old English *cunning (verbal noun), from Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”); partially from Old English cunnung (“knowledge, trial, probation, experience, contact, carnal knowledge”), from cunnian (“to search into, try, test, seek for, explore, investigate, experience, have experience of, to make trial of, know”), equivalent to con +? -ing.

Noun

cunning (countable and uncountable, plural cunnings)

1. Practical knowledge or experience; aptitude in performance; skill, proficiency; dexterity.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 236d.

     indeed at this very moment he's slipped away with the utmost cunning into a form that's most perplexing to investigate.

2. Practical skill employed in a secret or crafty manner; craft; artifice; skillful deceit; art or magic.
   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III scene ii^[1]:

     Caliban: As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.

3. The disposition to employ one's skill in an artful manner; craftiness; guile; artifice; skill of being cunning, sly, conniving, or deceitful.
4. The natural wit or instincts of an animal.

   the cunning of the fox or hare

5. (obsolete) Knowledge; learning; special knowledge (sometimes implying occult or magical knowledge).

Synonyms

• craftiness
• foxship
• list

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• diplomatical (dated)
• diplomatick (obsolete)

Etymology

From French diplomatique, equal to diplomat +? -ic.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?d?pl??mæt?k/

Adjective

diplomatic (comparative more diplomatic, superlative most diplomatic)

1. Concerning the relationships between the governments of countries.

   She spent thirty years working for Canada's diplomatic service.

   Albania immediately severed diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe.

2. Exhibiting diplomacy; exercising tact or courtesy; using discussion to avoid hard feelings, fights or arguments.

   Thoughtful corrections can be diplomatic as well as instructional.

3. describing a publication of a text which follows a single basic manuscript, but with variants in other manuscripts noted in the critical apparatus
   • Whereas a diplomatic edition uses as its base text a single, "best" manuscript, to which other textual evidence is collated and organized into an apparatus, a critical text of the LXX/OG [= Septuagint or Old Greek] may be described as a collection of the oldest recoverable texts, carefully restored book by book (or section by section), aiming at achieving the closest approximation to the original translations (from Hebrew or Aramaic) or compositions (in Greek), systematically reconstructed from the widest array of relevant textual data (including controlled conjecture). The International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Critical Editions of Septuagint/Old Greek Texts.
4. Relating to diplomatics, or the study of old texts; paleographic.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

diplomatic (uncountable)

1. The science of diplomas, or the art of deciphering ancient writings and determining their age, authenticity, etc.; paleography.
   • 1983, Theodore Frank Thomas Plucknett, Studies in English legal history (page 151)

     In its broadest aspect, the subject-matter of diplomatic is the relation between documents and facts.

Ladin

Adjective

diplomatic m pl

1. plural of diplomatich

Occitan

Adjective

diplomatic m (feminine singular diplomatica, masculine plural diplomatics, feminine plural diplomaticas)

1. diplomatic

Related terms

• diplomacia
• diplomata

Romanian

Etymology

From French diplomatique, from Latin diplomaticus.

Adjective

diplomatic m or n (feminine singular diplomatic?, masculine plural diplomatici, feminine and neuter plural diplomatice)

1. diplomatic

Declension