different between friendly vs confidential

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f??ndli/, /?f??nli/

Etymology 1

From Middle English frendly, freendly, frendely, frendlich, from Old English fr?ondl??, from Proto-Germanic *frij?ndl?kaz, equivalent to friend +? -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian früntelk, fjuntelk (“friendly”), West Frisian freonlik (“friendly”), Dutch vriendelijk (“friendly”), German Low German fründelk, frünnelk (“friendly”), German freundlich (“friendly”).

Adjective

friendly (comparative friendlier or more friendly, superlative friendliest or most friendly)

1. Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with in character.
2. Inviting, characteristic of friendliness.

3. Having an easy or accepting relationship with something.

4. Without any hostility.
5. Promoting the good of any person; favourable; propitious.

   • On the first friendly bank he throws him down.

6. (military) Of or pertaining to friendlies (friendly noun sense 2, below). Also applied to other bipolar confrontations, such as team sports
7. (number theory) Being or relating to two or more natural numbers with a common abundancy.

8. (in compounds) Compatible with, or not damaging to (the compounded noun).

Antonyms

• hostile
• unfriendly

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

friendly (plural friendlies)

1. (sports) A game which is of no consequence in terms of ranking, betting etc.

   This match is merely a friendly, so don't worry too much about it.
2. A person or entity on the same side in a conflict.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English frendly, frendliche, from Old English fr?ondl??e (“in a friendly manner”), equivalent to friend +? -ly.

Adverb

friendly (comparative more friendly, superlative most friendly)

1. (archaic) In a friendly manner, like a friend.

Synonyms

• amicably, friendlily

Translations

English

Etymology

From Latin confidentia +? -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k??nf??d?n?l/

Adjective

confidential (comparative more confidential, superlative most confidential)

1. Kept, or meant to be kept, secret within a certain circle of persons; not intended to be known publicly

   Synonyms: private, classified, off the record, privileged, secret, dern (obsolete)

   Antonyms: public, on the record

   • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Book 6, Chapter 61, p. 355,^[1]

     […] I have a communication of a very private—indeed, I will say, of a sacredly confidential nature, which I desire to make to you.

   • 1960, Muriel Spark, The Bachelors, Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1961, Chapter 10, p. 163,^[2]

     It would tell against your reputation, losing a confidential document, wouldn’t it? Why didn’t you keep it confidential if it was confidential?

2. (dated) Inclined to share confidences; (of things) making people inclined to share confidences; involving the sharing of confidences.
   • 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, Volume 3, Chapter 16, p. 310,^[3]

     Long, long would it be ere Miss Crawford’s name passed his lips again, or she could hope for a renewal of such confidential intercourse as had been.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, New York: Harper Brothers, Chapter 11, p. 60,^[4]

     I was only alive to the condensed confidential comfortableness of sharing a pipe and a blanket with a real friend.

   • 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York: Scribner, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 329,^[5]

     She and Bertha had never been on confidential terms, but at such a crisis the barriers of reserve must surely fall:

   • 1923, Arnold Bennett, Riceyman Steps, London: Cassell, Part 5, Chapter 2, p. 241,^[6]

     Miss Raste was encouraged to be entirely confidential, to withhold nothing even about herself, by the confidence-inspiring and kindly aspect of Elsie’s face.

3. (dated) Having someone's confidence or trust; having a position requiring trust; worthy of being trusted with confidences.
   • 1819, Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Chapter 8, p. 168,^[7]

     Now, they want me to send up a confidential person with some writings.

   • 1848, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, London: T.C. Newby, Volume 1, Chapter 18, pp. 320-321,^[8]

     This paper will serve instead of a confidential friend into whose ear I might pour forth the overflowings of my heart.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, Chapter 3, p. 11,^[9]

     […] perhaps the confidential bachelor clerks in Tellson’s Bank were principally occupied with the cares of other people;

   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not ..., London: Duckworth, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 245,^[10]

     I repeated the instruction by letter and I kept a copy of the letter witnessed by my confidential maid.

   • 1959, Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan, New York: Dial, 2006, Chapter 6, p. 155,^[11]

     “He said he was a confidential messenger,” shouted a man.

Derived terms

• confidentiality
• confidentially

Related terms

• confide
• confidence

Translations