different between downcast vs sedate

English

Etymology

From Middle English *doun-casten, *adoun-casten (inferred from Middle English adoun-casting (“downcasting”), adoun-cast (“overthrow, destruction”)), modelled similarly to other constructions in Middle English (namely, Middle English adoun-throwen (“to throw down”), adoun-werpen (“to throw down”)), equivalent to down- +? cast.

Pronunciation

• (adjective, noun)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?da?nkæst/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?da?nk??st/
• (verb)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /da?n?kæst/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /da?n?k??st/

Adjective

downcast (comparative more downcast, superlative most downcast)

1. (of eyes) Looking downwards.
   • 1717, John Dryden, Canace to Macareus

     'Tis love, said she; and then my downcast eyes, / And guilty dumbness, witness'd my surprise.

2. (of a person) Feeling despondent.

Translations

Noun

downcast (plural downcasts)

1. (computing) A cast from supertype to subtype.
2. (obsolete) A melancholy look.
   • 1619, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy

     That downcast of thine eye.

3. (mining) A ventilating shaft down which the air passes in circulating through a mine.

Verb

downcast (third-person singular simple present downcasts, present participle downcasting, simple past and past participle downcast or downcasted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cast or throw down; to turn downward.
2. (transitive, Scotland) To taunt; to reproach; to upbraid.
3. (transitive, computing) To cast from supertype to subtype.

   Antonym: upcast

Anagrams

• cast down

English

Etymology

From Latin sedatus, past participle of sedare (“to settle”), causative of sedere (“to sit”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /s??de?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /s??de?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Adjective

sedate (comparative more sedate, superlative most sedate)

1. (of a person or their behaviour) Remaining composed and dignified, and avoiding too much activity or excitement.

   Synonyms: placid, staid, unruffled

   • 1642, Richard Watson, A Sermon Touching Schisme, Cambridge: Roger Daniel, p. 27,^[1]

     […] they will rashly huddle up all together, and not admitting the least check of a sedate judgement, publish onely the impetuous dictates of their indiscreet and too precipitant fancie […]

   • 1715, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad: of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Book 3, p. 5, lines 87-88,^[2]

     But who like thee can boast a Soul sedate,

     So firmly Proof to all the Shocks of Fate?

   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Chapter 16,^[3]

     A reel or fling of some sort was in progress; and the usually sedate Farfrae was in the midst of the other dancers in the costume of a wild Highlander, flinging himself about and spinning to the tune.

   • 1989, Hilary Mantel, Fludd, New York: Henry Holt, 2000, Chapter 9, p. 149,^[4]

     Then she saw that they were waving their handkerchiefs; dipping them up and down, with a curiously sedate, formal motion.

2. (of an object, particularly a building) Not overly ornate or showy.
   • 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, Penguin, 1942, Chapter 6, p. 194,^[5]

     Sometimes she passed down avenues of sedate mansions, soberly numbered ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and so on right up to two or three hundred, each the copy of the other, with two pillars and six steps and a pair of curtains neatly drawn […]

   • 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York: Macmillan, 1964, Part 4, Chapter 37,^[6]

     The shiny carriages of Yankee officers’ wives and newly rich Carpetbaggers splashed mud on the dilapidated buggies of the townspeople, and gaudy new homes of wealthy strangers crowded in among the sedate dwellings of older citizens.

   • 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, Toronto: Irwin Publishing, 1986, “Grown Up,” pp. 164-165,^[7]

     Facing the Parliament Buildings across James’ Bay arose a sedate stone and cement Post Office.

   • 1985, Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist, London: Jonathan Cape, p. 352^[8]

     The great hotel, with its look of sedate luxury, brooded massively there with people teeming about it.

Derived terms

• sedately
• sedateness

Translations

Verb

sedate (third-person singular simple present sedates, present participle sedating, simple past and past participle sedated)

1. To calm or put (a person) to sleep using a sedative drug.

   Synonym: tranquilize

   • 1990, J. M. Coetzee, Age of Iron, New York: Random House, Chapter 2, p. 80,^[9]

     Though he may have been sedated, he knew I was there, knew who I was, knew I was talking to him.

2. To make tranquil.

   Synonyms: calm, soothe, tranquilize

Related terms

• resedate
• sedation
• sedative

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• e-dates, seated, steade, teades, teased

Italian

Verb

sedate

1. second-person plural present indicative of sedare
2. second-person plural imperative of sedare
3. feminine plural of sedato

Latin

Verb

s?d?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of s?d?

References

• sedate in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sedate in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sedate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette