different between earnest vs glib

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??n?st/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???n?st/
• Homophone: Ernest

Etymology 1

From Middle English ernest, eornest, from Old English eornest, eornost, eornust (“earnestness, zeal, seriousness, battle”), from Proto-Germanic *ernustuz (“earnest, strength, solidity, struggle, fight”), a derivative of Proto-Germanic *arniz (“efficient, capable, diligent, sure”), from Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to cause to move, arouse, increase”). Cognate with West Frisian earnst (“earnest, seriousness”), Dutch ernst (“seriousness, gravity, earnest”), German Ernst (“seriousness, earnestness, zeal, vigour”), Icelandic ern (“brisk, vigorous”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (arniba, “secure, certain, sure”).

The adjective is from Middle English eornest, from Old English eornoste (“earnest, zealous, serious”), from the noun. Cognate with North Frisian ernste (“earnest”), Middle Low German ernest, ernst (“serious, earnest”), German ernst (“serious, earnest”).

Noun

earnest (uncountable)

1. Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
   • 1914, February 13, The Times, Obituary: Canon Augustus Jessopp

     He wrote well in a forcible, colloquial style, with the air of being tremendously in earnest, and full of knowledge which overflowed his pages, tricked out with somewhat boisterous illustrations.

   • c. 1575-a 1586, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

     Take heed that this jest do not one day turn to earnest.

   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III: Act 5, Scene 1

     That high All-Seer which I dallied with

     Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head

     And given in earnest what I begg'd in jest.

2. Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)

Derived terms

• earnestful
• in earnest

Translations

Verb

earnest (third-person singular simple present earnests, present participle earnesting, simple past and past participle earnested)

1. (transitive) To be serious with; use in earnest.
   • 1602, Pastor Fido:

     Let's prove among ourselves our armes in jest, That when we come to earnest them with men, We may them better use.

Adjective

earnest (comparative earnester or more earnest, superlative earnestest or most earnest)

1. (said of an action or an utterance) Serious or honest
2. (with a positive sense) Focused in the pursuit of an objective; eager to obtain or do.

3. Intent; focused; showing a lot of concentration.

4. (said of a person or a person's character) Possessing or characterised by seriousness.

5. Strenuous; diligent.

6. Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; important.

Derived terms

• earnestly
• earnestness
• in earnest

Translations

Etymology 2

Of uncertain origin; apparently related to erres. Compare also arles.

Noun

earnest (plural earnests)

1. A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.

   • Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society 2010, p. 365:

     But if all this was viewed by Gladstone and the Cabinet as an earnest of St Petersburg's future good intentions in Central Asia, then disillusionment was soon to follow.

Translations

See also

• Earnest
• earnest money

Etymology 3

earn +? -est

Verb

earnest

1. (archaic) second-person singular simple present form of earn

Anagrams

• Eastern, Saetern, Tareens, eastern, estrane, nearest, renates, sterane

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?b/
• Rhymes: -?b

Etymology 1

A shortening of either English glibbery (“slippery”) or its source, Low German glibberig, glibberich (“slippery”) / Dutch glibberig (“slippery”).

Adjective

glib (comparative glibber, superlative glibbest)

1. Having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.
2. (dated) Smooth or slippery.

3. Artfully persuasive but insincere in nature; smooth-talking, honey-tongued, silver-tongued.

Derived terms

• glibly
• glibness

Translations

Verb

glib (third-person singular simple present glibs, present participle glibbing, simple past and past participle glibbed)

1. (transitive) To make glib.
   • 1628, Joseph Hal, “Christian Liberty Laid Forth,” in The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D., Volume V, London: Williams & Smith, 1808, p. 366, [1]

     There is a drunken liberty of the Tongue; which, being once glibbed with intoxicating liquor, runs wild through heaven and earth; and spares neither him that is God above, nor those which are called gods on earth.

   • 1730, Edward Strother, Dr. Radcliffe’s Practical Dispensatory, London: C. Rivington, p. 342, [2]

     They are good internally in Fits of the Stone in the Kidneys, by glibbing the Ureters, and making even a large Stone pass with ease […]

   • 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, “Gran’s Battle,” [3]

     We were having one of our bitterest cold snaps. Wind due north, shrieking over stiff land; two feet of snow, all substances glibbed with ice and granite-hard.

Etymology 2

From Irish glib.

Noun

glib (plural glibs)

1. (historical) A mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes, formerly worn in Ireland.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.8:

     Whom when she saw in wretched weedes disguiz'd, / With heary glib deform'd and meiger face, / Like ghost late risen from his grave agryz'd, / She knew him not […].

   • The Irish have, from the Scythians, mantles and long glibs, which is a thick curled bush of hair hanging down over their eyes, and monstrously disguising them.

   • 1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society

     Their wild costume of the glib and mantle.

   • 1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho! [[s:Westward Ho!/Chapter {{{1}}}|Chapter {{{1}}}]]

     a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand

Etymology 3

Compare Old English and dialect lib to castrate, geld, Danish dialect live, Low German and Old Dutch lubben.

Verb

glib (third-person singular simple present glibs, present participle glibbing, simple past and past participle glibbed)

1. (obsolete) To castrate; to geld; to emasculate.
   • 1623: William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, Act II Scene 1

     Fourteen they shall not see
     To bring false generations. They are co-heirs;
     And I had rather glib myself than they
     Should not produce fair issue.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *glib?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?lî?b/

Noun

gl?b m (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. mud, mire

Declension