different between mistrust vs diffidence

English

Etymology

mis- +? trust

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?s?t??st/
• Rhymes: -?st

Noun

mistrust (uncountable)

1. Lack of trust or confidence; distrust, untrust.

Synonyms

• distrust
• untrust
• wantrust (obsolete)

Antonyms

• trust

Translations

Verb

mistrust (third-person singular simple present mistrusts, present participle mistrusting, simple past and past participle mistrusted)

1. (transitive) To have no confidence in (something or someone).
   • 1670, John Milton, The History of Britain, London: James Allestry, Book 3, p. 104^[1]:

     The Britans marching out against them, and mistrusting thir own power, send to Germanus and his Collegue, reposing more in the spiritual strength of those two men, than in thir own thousands arm’d.

   • 1902, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: A Narrative” in Youth: A Narrative and Two Other Stories, Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, p. 6^[2]:

     He mistrusted my youth, my common-sense, and my seamanship, and made a point of showing it in a hundred little ways.

2. (transitive) To be wary, suspicious or doubtful of (something or someone).
   • c. 1380s, Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, lines 1609-1610^[3]:

     Mistrust me not thus causeles, for routhe;

     Sin to be trewe I have yow plight my trouthe.

   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Henry Cripps, Partition 3, Section 3, Member 2, Subsection 1, p. 683^[4]:

     It is most strange to report what outragious acts […] haue beene committed […] by women especially, that will runne after their husbands into all places, all companies, as Iouianus Pontanus wife did by him, follow him whether soeuer hee goes, it matters not, or vpon what businesse, rauing […] , cursing, swearing, and mistrusting euery one she sees.

   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 19^[5]:

     The innocent beauty of her face was not as innocent to me as it had been; I mistrusted the natural grace and charm of her manner […]

3. (transitive) To suspect, to imagine or suppose (something) to be the case.
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act V, Scene 6^[6]:

     […] I prophesy, that many a thousand,

     Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear,

     And many an old man's sigh and many a widow’s,

     And many an orphan’s water-standing eye—

     Men for their sons, wives for their husbands,

     And orphans for their parents timeless death—

     Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born.

   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar London, p. 51,^[7]:

     As soon as it was dark enough to conceal our Flight, we assembl’d together, and took a considerable Quantity of Muslins and Callicoes, and hung them upon the Bushes, that the Spies, who we knew watch’d us, might not any ways mistrust our sudden Removal.

   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds

     Those who had known the circumstances of her discovery, had gradually come to look upon her as the child of those who treasured her as if she had been their own; and the playmates of her childhood days had never mistrusted there was a mystery hanging about her "romantic" name,—Sea-flower.

4. (intransitive) To be suspicious.
   • 1887, Marietta Holley, Samantha at Saratoga, Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, Chapter 2, p. 46^[8]:

     She wuz soft in her complexion, her lips, her cheeks, her hands, and as I mistrusted at that first minute, and found out afterwards, soft in her head too.

   • 1916, Robert Frost, “A Girl’s Garden” in Mountain Interval, New York: Henry Holt & Co., p. 61^[9]:

     And yes, she has long mistrusted

     That a cider apple tree

     In bearing there to-day is hers,

     Or at least may be.

Synonyms

• distrust

Antonyms

• trust

Translations

English

Etymology

From Latin diff?dentiam (“distrust”), from diff?dere (“to mistrust”), from dis- and f?dere (“to trust”). Attested since ?1400. The original sense was antonymous with confidence, and the modern sense of ‘distrusting oneself’ dates from the 1650s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?f?d?ns/

Noun

diffidence (countable and uncountable, plural diffidences)

1. The state of being diffident, timid or shy; reticence or self-effacement.
   • 1857, Brigham Young, Journal of Discources, Attention and Reflection Necessary to An Increase of Knowledge, etc.

     I have the same diffidence in my feelings that most public speakers have, and am apt to think that others can speak better and more edifying than I can.

   • 1897, José María de Pereda, translated by William Henry Bishop, Cleto's Proposal to Sotileza (an excerpt from Sotileza)

     "I was passing by," he began to stammer, trembling with his diffidence, "I—happened to be passing along this way, and so—er—as I was passing this way, I says to myself, says I, 'I'll just stop into the shop a minute.'
2. (obsolete) Mistrust, distrust, lack of confidence in someone or something.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part I, act 3 scene 3

     [Charles, King of France]: We have been guided by thee hitherto,

     And of thy cunning had no diffidence:

     One sudden foil shall never breed distrust.

Related terms

Translations

References