different between deceptive vs nefarious
deceptive
English
Etymology
From Middle French déceptif, from Latin d?cept?vus, from d?cipi? (“I deceive”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /d?.?s?p.t?v/
Adjective
deceptive (comparative more deceptive, superlative most deceptive)
- Likely or attempting to deceive.
- Synonym: misleading
- 1653, John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis, London: William Hunt, Scene 24, p. 521,[1]
- […] others declare that no Creature can be made or transmuted into a better or worse, or transformed into another species […] and Martinus Delrio the Jesuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beast to be an illusion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature;
- 1789, Thomas Holcroft (translator), The History of My Own Times by Frederick the Great, London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Part 1, Chapter 12, p. 163,[2]
- […] at the opening of the campaign, the French, after various deceptive attempts on different places, suddenly invested Tournay.
- 1846, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, London: John W. Parker, 2nd ed., 1847, Preliminary Essay, Chapter 2, p. 10,[3]
- language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes
- 1978, Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 2, p. 13,[4]
- […] it is characteristic of TB that many of its symptoms are deceptive—liveliness that comes from enervation, rosy cheeks that look like a sign of health but come from fever—and an upsurge of vitality may be a sign of approaching death.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:deceptive
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
deceptive From the web:
- what does deceptively simple mean
- what does deceptively mean
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nefarious
English
Etymology
From Latin nef?rius (“execrable, abominable”), from nef?s (“something contrary to divine law, an impious deed, sin, crime”), from ne- (“not”) + f?s (“the dictates of religion, divine law”), which is related to Latin for (“I speak, I say”) and cognate to Ancient Greek ???? (ph?mí, “I say”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /n??f???i.?s/
- (UK) IPA(key): /n??f????.?s/
- Rhymes: -??ri?s
Adjective
nefarious (comparative more nefarious, superlative most nefarious)
- Sinful, villainous, criminal, or wicked, especially when noteworthy or notorious for such characteristics.
- Synonyms: evil, iniquitous, sinister, underhanded, vile, good-for-nothing; see also Thesaurus:evil
- 1828, James Fenimore Cooper, The Red Rover, ch. 2:
- "If the vessel be no fair-trading slaver, nor a common cruiser of his Majesty, it is as tangible as the best man's reasoning, that she may be neither more nor less than the ship of that nefarious pirate the Red Rover."
- 1877, Anthony Trollope, The Life of Cicero, ch. 9:
- Mommsen . . . declares that Catiline in particular was "one of the most nefarious men in that nefarious age. His villanies belong to the criminal records, not to history."
- 1921, P. G. Wodehouse, The Indiscretions of Archie, ch. 26:
- The fact that the room was still in darkness made it obvious that something nefarious was afoot. Plainly there was dirty work in preparation at the cross-roads.
- 2009 Oct. 14, Monica Davey, "Fact Checker Finds Falsehoods in Remarks," New York Times (retrieved 12 May 2014):
- “I try to let everyone back here in Minnesota know exactly the nefarious activities that are taking place in Washington.”
- Aliens have a nefarious connotation in many science fiction books.
Usage notes
- Commonly used in contexts involving villainous plans, conspiracies, or actions, as in:
- 1909, Bram Stoker, The Lady of the Shroud, book 7:
- The whole nefarious scheme was one of the "put-up jobs" which are part of the dirty work of a certain order of statecraft.
Derived terms
- nefariously
- nefariousness
Translations
References
- nefarious at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams
- isofurane
nefarious From the web:
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