different between importunate vs sincere

English

Etymology 1

From Latin importune +? -ate

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?p??tj?n?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?p??t???n?t/

Adjective

importunate (comparative more importunate, superlative most importunate)

1. (of a demand) Persistent or pressing, often annoyingly so.
   • 1890, Henry James, The Tragic Muse:

     Nick was on the point of declaring again that he was a humbug, so vivid was his inner sense of what he thought of his factitious public utterances, which had the cursed property of creating dreadful responsibilities and importunate credulities for him.

2. (of a person) Given to importunate demands, greedily or thoughtlessly demanding.

Related terms

• importune

Translations

Etymology 2

From French importuner (“to bother, disturb”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?p??tju?ne?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?p??tju?ne?t/

Verb

importunate (third-person singular simple present importunates, present participle importunating, simple past and past participle importunated)

1. (rare) To importune, or to obtain by importunity.
   • 1581 June 23, Thomas Churchyard, letter to Sir Christopher Hatton, in Sir Harris Nicolas (editor), Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton, K.G., Richard Bentley (publisher, 1847), page 173:

     All which notwithstanding, I obtained licence at length to make my supplication to the noble Parliament house; but I could find no messengers till Sir John Seton went, whom I importunated daily to obtain me favor for my return home again.

   • 1847 December 18, N. Roussel, “Spiritual Destitution of Paris.—Appeal to British Christians”, in Evangelical Christendom: Its State and Prospects, Volume II (1848), Partridge and Oakey, page 43:

     Is my work ended? The fear of importunating my friends answers, “Yes.”

   • 1910 July, David Leslie Brown, “The Need of To-day”, in Sunset, Volume 25, Southern Pacific Company, reverse of frontispiece:

     It is the concrete that impresses, that importunates until it influences—in writing as in everything else.

Translations

Anagrams

• permutation, premutation

Italian

Verb

importunate

1. second-person plural present indicative of importunare
2. second-person plural imperative of importunare
3. feminine plural of importunato

English

Etymology

From Middle French sincere, from Latin sincerus (“genuine”), from Proto-Indo-European *sin- + *?er- (“grow”), from which also Ceres (“goddess of harvest”) from which English cereal.

Unrelated to sine (“without”) cera (“wax”) (folk etymology); see Wikipedia discussion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?n?s??(?)/
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Adjective

sincere (comparative more sincere or sincerer, superlative most sincere or sincerest)

1. Genuine; meaning what one says or does; heartfelt.

   I believe he is sincere in his offer to help.

2. Meant truly or earnestly.

   She gave it a sincere, if misguided effort.

3. (archaic) clean; pure

Synonyms

• earnest

Antonyms

• insincere

Related terms

• cereal
• Ceres
• crescent
• sincerity
• sincereness

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• cereins, ceresin, cerines, renices

Esperanto

Etymology

sincera +? -e

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sin?t?sere/
• Hyphenation: sin?ce?re
• Rhymes: -ere

Adverb

sincere

1. sincerely

Antonyms

• malsincere (“insincerely”)

Italian

Adjective

sincere f pl

1. feminine plural of sincero

Anagrams

• censire, crisene, recensì, recinse, scernei, secerni

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb

sinc?r? (not comparable)

1. uprightly, honestly, frankly, sincerely
   • 1st century, Catullus, Poem 109

     Di magni, facite ut vere promittere possit // atque id sincere dicat ex animo

Etymology 2

Adjective

sinc?re

1. vocative masculine singular of sinc?rus

References

• sincere in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sincere in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Middle French

Etymology

First attested in 1441, borrowed from Latin sinc?rus.

Adjective

sincere m or f (plural sinceres)

1. sincere (genuinely meaning what one says or does)

Descendants

• ? English: sincere
• French: sincère

References

Spanish

Verb

sincere

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.