different between nurture vs character

English

Alternative forms

• nouriture (obsolete)
• nutriture (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English norture, noriture, from Old French norriture, norreture, from Late Latin nutritura (“nourishment”), from Latin nutrire (“to nourish”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

nurture (countable and uncountable, plural nurtures)

1. The act of nourishing or nursing; tender care

   Synonyms: upbringing, raising, education, training

2. That which nourishes; food; diet.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, A Veue of the Present State of Ireland

     Other great houses there be of the English in Ireland, which, through licentious conversing with the Irish, or marrying, or fostering with them or lack of meet nurture, or other such unhappy occasions, have degenerated from their ancient dignities and are now grown as Irish as O'Hanlon's breech, as the proverb there is.

3. The environmental influences that contribute to the development of an individual (as opposed to "nature").
   • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes

     A man neither by nature nor by nurture wise.

Translations

Verb

nurture (third-person singular simple present nurtures, present participle nurturing, simple past and past participle nurtured)

1. To nourish or nurse.
2. (figuratively, by extension) To encourage, especially the growth or development of something.
   • 2009, UNESCO, The United Nations World Water Development Report – N° 3 - 2009 – Freshwater and International Law (the Interplay between Universal, Regional and Basin Perspectives), page 10, ?ISBN

     The relationships between universal norms and specific norms nurture the development of international law.

Synonyms

• (figuratively, to encourage): See Thesaurus:nurture

Related terms

• nourish
• nourishment
• nurse
• nursery
• nurturance
• nutrient
• nutriment
• nutrition
• nutritional
• nutritious
• nutritive

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• U-turner, untruer

Middle English

Noun

nurture

1. Alternative form of norture

English

Etymology

From Middle English caracter, from Old French caractere, from Latin character, from Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r, “type, nature, character”), from ??????? (kharáss?, “I engrave”). Doublet of charakter.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??(?)kt?/, /?kæ?(?)kt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæ??kt?/
• Hyphenation: char?ac?ter

Noun

character (countable and uncountable, plural characters)

1. (countable) A being involved in the action of a story.
2. (countable) A distinguishing feature; characteristic; trait; phene.

3. (uncountable, countable) A complex of traits marking a person, group, breed, or type.

   • A man of […] thoroughly subservient character

4. (uncountable) Strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; moral strength.

5. (countable) A unique or extraordinary individual; a person characterized by peculiar or notable traits, especially charisma.

6. (countable) A written or printed symbol, or letter.
   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech

     It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye.

7. (countable, dated) Style of writing or printing; handwriting; the particular form of letters used by a person or people.
8. (countable, dated) A secret cipher; a way of writing in code.
9. (countable, computing) One of the basic elements making up a text file or string: a code representing a printing character or a control character.
10. (countable, informal) A person or individual, especially one who is unknown or raises suspicions.

11. (countable, mathematics) A complex number representing an element of a finite Abelian group.
12. (countable) Quality, position, rank, or capacity; quality or conduct with respect to a certain office or duty.

13. (countable, dated) The estimate, individual or general, put upon a person or thing; reputation.

    • This subterraneous passage is much mended since Seneca gave so bad a character of it.

14. (countable, dated) A reference given to a servant, attesting to their behaviour, competence, etc.
15. (countable, obsolete) Personal appearance.

Usage notes

Character is sometimes used interchangeably with reputation, but the two words have different meanings; character describes the distinctive qualities of an individual or group while reputation describes the opinions held by others regarding an individual or group. Character is internal and authentic, while reputation is external and perceived.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Pages starting with “character”.

Translations

Verb

character (third-person singular simple present characters, present participle charactering, simple past and past participle charactered)

1. (obsolete) To write (using characters); to describe.

See also

• codepoint
• font
• glyph
• letter
• symbol
• rune
• pictogram

Latin

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ???????? (kharakt?r).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /k?a?rak.ter/, [k?ä??äkt??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ka?rak.ter/, [k????kt??r]

Noun

character m (genitive charact?ris); third declension

1. branding iron
2. brand (made by a branding iron)
3. characteristic, mark, character, style

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Descendants

• Hungarian: karakter
• Galician: caritel; ? carácter
• Irish: carachtar
• Italian: carattere
• Old French: caractere
  • ? English: character
  • French: caractère
• Polish: charakter
  • ? Russian: ????????? (xarákter)
• Portuguese: caractere, carácter
• Sicilian: caràttiri
• Spanish: carácter

References

• character in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• character in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• character in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Noun

character m (plural characteres)

1. Obsolete spelling of caráter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).