different between indifferent vs different

English

Etymology

From Old French indifferent, from Latin indifferens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?d?f.??nt/, /?n?d?f.?.??nt/
• Hyphenation: in?dif?fer?ent

Adjective

indifferent (comparative more indifferent, superlative most indifferent)

1. Not caring or concerned; uninterested, apathetic.
   • 1816, Jane Austen, Emma, Volume 2, Chapter 16,^[1]

     “I must not hope to be ever situated as you are, in the midst of every dearest connexion, and therefore I cannot expect that simply growing older should make me indifferent about letters.”

     “Indifferent! Oh! no—I never conceived you could become indifferent. Letters are no matter of indifference; they are generally a very positive curse.”

   • 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, Chapter 3,^[2]

     When you have a hundred francs in the world you are liable to the most craven panics. When you have only three francs you are quite indifferent; for three francs will feed you till tomorrow, and you cannot think further than that. You are bored, but you are not afraid.

2. Indicating or reflecting a lack of concern or care.
   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Chapter 25,^[3]

     Donald appeared not to see her at all, and answered her wise little remarks with curtly indifferent monosyllables […]

   • 1990, J. M. Coetzee, Age of Iron, London: Secker & Warburg, p. 33,

     ‘Wonderful, Florence,’ I said, producing the ritual phrases: ‘I don’t know what I would do without you.’ But of course I do know. I would sink into the indifferent squalor of old age.

3. Mediocre (usually used negatively in modern usage).
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 10, Chapter 9, p. 275,^[4]

     When Mrs. Honour had made her Report from the Landlord, Sophia, with much Difficulty, procured some indifferent Horses, which brought her to the Inn, where Jones had been confined rather by the Misfortune of meeting with a Surgeon, than by having met with a broken Head.

   • 1826, Walter Scott, Woodstock, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Volume I, Chapter 3, p. 84,^[5]

     […] the state-rooms are unaired, and in indifferent order, since of late years.

   • 1965, Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate, Part 2, p. 252,^[6]

     Suddenly Barbara remembered the party where she had first met Ruth Gardnor with her husband. The night of the dinner party. And the cello: it had been an indifferent performance.

4. Having no preference or bias, being impartial.
   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy, London: J. Tonson, Act V, Scene 1, p. 57,^[7]

     […] Let Guilt or Fear

     Disturb Man’s Rest: Cato knows neither of ’em,

     Indiff’rent in his Choice to sleep or die.

   • 1933, H. G. Wells, The Shape of Things to Come, Book 3, Part 7,^[8]

     The scientific worker aims at knowledge and is quite indifferent whether people like or dislike the knowledge he produces.

5. Not making a difference; without significance or importance.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 3,^[9]

     […] But I am arm’d,

     And dangers are to me indifferent.

   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, “Of Contentedness” in The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, 8th edition, London: Richard Royston, 1668, Chapter 2, Section 6, p. 118,^[10]

     […] every thing in the world is indifferent but sin.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, p. 162,^[11]

     His gestures, his gait, his grizzled beard, his slightest and most indifferent acts, the very fashion of his garments, were odious in the clergyman’s sight;

   • 1956, Mary Renault, The Last of the Wine, New York: Modern Library, Chapter 28, p. 374,^[12]

     We talked of indifferent things, and watched the juggler who was tossing torches in the Stadium, for twilight was falling.

6. (mechanics) Being in the state of neutral equilibrium.
7. (obsolete) Not different, matching.
   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene 1,^[13]

     […] let their heads be sleekly comb’d, their blue coats brush’d and their garters of an indifferent knit

Related terms

• indifference
• indifferency (obsolete)
• indifferentism
• indifferently

Translations

Noun

indifferent (plural indifferents)

1. A person who is indifferent or apathetic.

Adverb

indifferent

1. (obsolete) To some extent, in some degree (intermediate between very and not at all); moderately, tolerably, fairly.

Usage notes

• Now obsolete, but very common c. 1600-1730.

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “indifferent”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Middle French

Adjective

indifferent m (feminine singular indifferente, masculine plural indifferents, feminine plural indifferentes)

1. indifferent; apathetic

English

Etymology

From Middle English different, from Old French different, from Latin differ?ns, present active participle of differ? (“I differ”); see differ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?f.(?)?.?nt/
• Hyphenation: dif?fer?ent, diffe?rent

Adjective

different (comparative more different, superlative most different)

1. Not the same; exhibiting a difference.
   • 1915, Edward Knobel, Ptolemy's Catalogue of Stars – A Revision of the Almagest, page 14 (showing that "to" was used by an Englishman in 1915)

     One interesting feature was remarked by Dr. Peters, viz.: that the instrument used for the longitudes of the original catalogue was graduated differently to that used for the latitudes.

   • 1971, William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead, page 6

     Enter the American tourist. He thinks of himself as a good guy but when he looks in the mirror to shave this good guy he has to admit that "well, other people are different from me and I don't really like them." This makes him feel guilty toward other people.
2. Various, assorted, diverse.
   • 2006, Delbert S. Elliott et al., Good Kids from Bad Neighborhoods: Successful Development in Social Context,^[1] Cambridge University Press, ?ISBN, page 19:

     In any case, poor black respondents living in high-poverty neighborhoods are most likely to view their neighborhood as a single block or block group and to use this definition consistently when asked about different neighborhood characteristics and activities.

3. Distinct, separate; used for emphasis after numbers and other determiners of quantity.

4. Unlike most others; unusual.

Usage notes

• (not the same): Depending on dialect, time period, and register, the adjective different (“not the same”) may be construed with one of the prepositions from, to, and than, or with the subordinating conjunction than.

  Pleasure is different from/than/to happiness.

  It's different than (or from what) I expected.

  Of these, from is more common in formal registers than in informal ones, and more common in the US than elsewhere; than is more common in the US than elsewhere; and to is more common in the UK, in Australia, and in New Zealand than in the US. Style guides often advocate different from, by analogy with differ from rather than *differ than or *differ to, and proscribe different than and different to.

Synonyms

• (not the same): other; See also Thesaurus:different
• (various): sundry; See also Thesaurus:assorted
• (distinct): apart, distinct; See also Thesaurus:separate
• (unlike most others): aberrant, deviant, nonstandard; See also Thesaurus:strange

Antonyms

• (not the same): alike, identical, same, similar
• (various): homogeneous
• (distinct): coherent, indistinct, unified
• (unlike most others): normal, usual; See also Thesaurus:normal
• (all senses): undifferent

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

different (plural differents)

1. (mathematics) The different ideal.

Adverb

different (comparative more different, superlative most different)

1. Differently.

Further reading

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

German

Etymology

From Latin differ?ns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [d?f????nt]
• Hyphenation: dif?fe?rent

Adjective

different (comparative differenter, superlative am differentesten)

1. different

Declension

Further reading

• “different” in Duden online

Latin

Verb

different

1. third-person plural future active indicative of differ?

Middle English

Alternative forms

• dyfferent

Etymology

From Old French different, from Latin differ?ns, present active participle of differ?; equivalent to differren (“to postpone”) +? -ent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?dif?r?nt/, /di?f?r?nt/

Adjective

different (plural and weak singular differente)

1. different

Related terms

• differently

Descendants

• English: different
• Scots: different

References

• “different, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-07-31.