different between familiarity vs acquaintanceship

English

Etymology

From Middle French familiarité, from Latin famili?rit?tem. Displaced native Old English h?wc?þnes.

Morphologically familiar +? -ity

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /f?m?l??æ??ti/
• Rhymes: -æ??ti

Noun

familiarity (countable and uncountable, plural familiarities)

1. The state of being extremely friendly; intimacy.
   • 1677, Hannah Woolley, The Compleat Servant-Maid, London: T. Passinger, p. 2,^[1]

     Do not keep familiarity with any but those, with whom you may improve your time.

2. Undue intimacy; inappropriate informality, impertinence.
3. An instance of familiar behaviour.
4. Close or habitual acquaintance with someone or something; understanding or recognition acquired from experience.

Derived terms

• familiarity breeds contempt

Translations

English

Etymology

From acquaintance +? -ship.

Noun

acquaintanceship (usually uncountable, plural acquaintanceships)

1. (uncountable) The state of being acquainted.

   Synonym: acquaintance

   • 1640, John Day, The Knave in Graine, New Vampt, London, Act III, Scene 1,^[1]

     What, eschew acquaintanceship? forget, After my most hearty commendations, my very trusty friend, ’Twere sin and shame Tomaso.

   • 1889, Edmund Doidge Anderson Morshead (translator), The Libation-Bearers, in The House of Atreus, page 114

     To host and hostess thus with fortune blest,
     Lief had I come with better news to bear
     Unto your greeting and acquaintanceship;

   • 1915, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island, Chapter 5,^[2]

     Without effort, she took them with her into her ever widening circle of acquaintanceship, and the two Avonlea girls found their social pathway at Redmond made very easy and pleasant for them […]

   • 1971, E. M. Forster, Maurice, Penguin, 1972, Chapter 33, p. 143,^[3]

     When they talked down the telephone he heard a man whom he might respect at the other end of it — a fellow who sounded willing to let bygones be bygones and passion acquaintanceship.

2. (countable) A relationship as acquaintances.
   • 1753, George Wollaston, The Life and History of a Pilgrim, Dublin, Book 2, p. 137,^[4]

     They began their acquaintanceship very lovingly, and after a shake or two by the hand, Bell gave him a more particular account of the uses and sanctity of his office […]

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, London: Constable, Chapter 4, p. 42,^[5]

     I have already spoken to them through my window to begin an acquaintanceship.

   • 1905, William John Locke, The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne, Part 2, Chapter 21,^[6]

     A growing distaste for the forced acquaintanceships of travel and a craving for home brought me back.

   • 1979, Patrick White, The Twyborn Affair, Penguin, 1981, Part 2, pp. 133-134,^[7]

     It was an acquaintanceship formed partly out of boredom, partly for mutual protection […]

   • 2013, Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Part 2, Chapter 15,^[8]

     […] because she felt a strange freedom—even a security—in having decided that no acquaintanceship could end in anything untoward, she felt emboldened to sometimes do and say such things to men […]

Related terms

• acquaint
• acquaintance
• acquainted
• unacquainted

Translations