different between intimacy vs intimate

English

Etymology

intimate +? -cy

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n.t?.m?.si/

Noun

intimacy (countable and uncountable, plural intimacies)

1. (uncountable, countable) Feeling or atmosphere of closeness and openness towards someone else, not necessarily involving sexuality.
   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Section 13.6^[1]

     To adulterous lust the most sacred duties are sacrificed, because, before marriage, men, by a promiscuous intimacy with women, learned to consider love as a selfish gratification—learned to separate it not only from esteem, but from the affection merely built on habit, which mixes a little humanity with it.

   • 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Truth of Intercourse” in Essays, English and American, The Harvard Classics, Volume 28, edited by Charles W. Eliot, New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, p. 287,^[2]

     The habitual liar may be a very honest fellow, and live truly with his wife and friends; while another man who never told a formal falsehood in his life may yet be himself one lie—heart and face, from top to bottom. This is the kind of lie which poisons intimacy.

   • 1908, Jack London, “To Build a Fire” in Lost Face, London: Mills & Boon, 1916,^[3]

     […] there was keen intimacy between the dog and the man.
2. (countable) Intimate relationship.
   • 1787, Robert Burns, Letter to Dr. Moore, 23 April, 1787, in J. Logie Robertson (ed.), The Letters of Robert Burns, Selected and Arranged, with an Introduction, London: Walter Scott, 1887, p. 57,^[5]

     I have formed many intimacies and friendships here, but I am afraid they are all of too tender a construction to bear carriage a hundred and fifty miles.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Volume I, Chapter 8,^[6]

     “I have always thought it a very foolish intimacy,” said Mr. Knightley presently, “though I have kept my thoughts to myself; but I now perceive that it will be a very unfortunate one for Harriet […] ”

   • 1899, Henry James, The Awkward Age, Book One, Chapter 2,^[7]

     “ […] it isn’t my notion of the way to bring up a girl to give her up, in extreme youth, to an intimacy with a young married woman who’s both unhappy and silly, whose conversation has absolutely no limits, who says everything that comes into her head and talks to the poor child about God only knows what […] ”

3. (countable, especially plural) Intimate detail, (item of) intimate information.
   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part One, Chapter 4,

     He recognized the tone as the one used by friendly sisters to discuss the infirmities of their husbands. It was Shama’s plea to a sister to exchange intimacies, to show support.

Antonyms

• solitude

Related terms

• intimate
• intimation

Translations

Anagrams

• imitancy, minacity

English

Etymology

From Latin intimare (“to put or bring into, to impress, to make familiar”), from intimus (“inmost, innermost, most intimate”), superlative of intus (“within”), from in (“in”); see interior.

Pronunciation

Adjective, noun

• enPR: ?n't?m?t, IPA^(key): /??n.t?.m?t/

Verb

• enPR: ?n't?m?t, IPA^(key): /??n.t?.me?t/

Adjective

intimate (comparative more intimate, superlative most intimate)

1. Closely acquainted; familiar.

   an intimate friend

   He and his sister deeply valued their intimate relationship as they didn't have much else to live for.

2. Of or involved in a sexual relationship.

   She enjoyed some intimate time alone with her husband.

3. Personal; private.

   an intimate setting

4. Pertaining to details that require great familiarity to know.

Translations

Noun

intimate (plural intimates)

1. A very close friend.

   Only a couple of intimates had ever read his writing.

2. (in plural intimates) Women's underwear, sleepwear, or lingerie, especially offered for sale in a store.

   You'll find bras and panties in the women's intimates section upstairs.

Synonyms

• (close friend): bosom buddy, bosom friend, cater-cousin

Translations

Verb

intimate (third-person singular simple present intimates, present participle intimating, simple past and past participle intimated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To suggest or disclose (something) discreetly.

   •     The Kaiser beamed. Von Bulow had praised him. Von Bulow had exalted him and humbled himself. The Kaiser could forgive anything after that. "Haven't I always told you," he exclaimed with enthusiasm, "that we complete one another famously? We should stick together, and we will!"
         [...]
         Von Bulow saved himself in time—but, canny diplomat that he was, he nevertheless had made one error: he should have begun by talking about his own shortcomings and Wilhelm's superiority—not by intimating that the Kaiser was a half-wit in need of a guardian.

   He intimated that we should leave before the argument escalated.

2. (transitive, India) To notify.

   I will intimate you when the details are available.

Translations

Related terms

• intimacy
• intimation

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• antitime

Esperanto

Adverb

intimate

1. present adverbial passive participle of intimi

Italian

Verb

intimate

1. second-person plural present indicative of intimare
2. second-person plural imperative of intimare
3. feminine plural of intimato

Anagrams

• imitante

Latin

Verb

intim?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of intim?