different between high-spirited vs confident

English

Pronunciation

Adjective

high-spirited (comparative more high-spirited, superlative most high-spirited)

1. Possessing a bold nature.
   • 1918, Jack London, "The Princess":

     "She was as fine a figure of a woman as I was a man, as high-spirited and courageous, as reckless and dare-devilish."

2. Energetic, exuberant, or high-strung.
   • 1950 Sept. 25, "Music: Out of the Corner," Time:

     Last week a group of four high-spirited folksters known as the Weavers had succeeded in shouting, twanging and crooning folk singing out of its cloistered corner.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle French confident, from Latin confidens (“confident, i.e. self-confident, in good or bad sense, bold, daring, audacious, impudent”), present participle of confidere (“to trust fully, confide”). See confide.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?n.f?.d?nt/, [?k???.f?.dn?t]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k?n.f?.d?nt/, [?k???.f?.dn?t]
• Hyphenation: con?fi?dent

Adjective

confident (comparative more confident, superlative most confident)

1. Very sure of something; positive.

2. Self-assured, self-reliant, sure of oneself.
3. (obsolete, in negative sense) Forward, impudent.
   • 1775, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Duenna, I.2:

     I was rated as the most confident ruffian, for daring to approach her room at that hour of night.

Synonyms

• (self-confident): self-assured

Antonyms

• (self-confident): insecure, self-destructive

Related terms

• confidant
• confidante
• confide
• confidence
• confidential
• overconfident
• self-confident

Translations

Noun

confident (plural confidents)

1. Obsolete form of confidant.
   • 1684, John Dryden, The History of the League (originally in French by Louis Maimbourg)

     He managed this consultation with exceeding secrecy, admitting only four or five of his confidents, on whom he most relied

   • a certain Lawyer , a great Confident of the Rebels

Further reading

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

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.fi.d??/

Noun

confident m (plural confidents, feminine confidente)

1. confidant

Related terms

• confidence

Further reading

• “confident” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Verb

c?nf?dent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of c?nf?d?

Romanian

Etymology

From French confident

Noun

confident m (plural confiden?i)

1. confidant

Declension