different between plain vs outgoing

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: pl?n, IPA^(key): /ple?n/, [p?l?e?n]
• Rhymes: -e?n
• Homophone: plane

Etymology 1

From Middle English pleyn, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleyn, playn, Middle French plain, plein, and Old French plain, from Latin pl?nus (“flat, even, level, plain”).

Alternative forms

• plaine (obsolete)

Adjective

plain (comparative plainer, superlative plainest)

1. (now rare, regional) Flat, level. [from 14th c.]

   • The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.

2. Simple.
   1. Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished. [from 14th c.]
   2. Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.

   3. Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary. [from 16th c.]
      • 1654, Henry Hammond, Of Fundamentals

        plain yet pious Christians

      • 1861, Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress in Special Session, July 4th

        the plain people

   4. (of food) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras. [from 17th c.]

   5. (computing) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text). [from 20th c.]
3. Obvious.
   1. Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable. [from 14th c.]
      • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XV, Practical — Devotional

        In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, this Abbot, it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.

   2. Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier). [from 14th c.]

4. Open.
   1. Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt. [from 14th c.]
      • The Quaker was no sooner assured by this fellow of the birth and low fortune of Jones, than all compassion for him vanished; and the honest plain man went home fired with no less indignation than a duke would have felt at receiving an affront from such a person.

   2. Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.
      • 1711, Henry Felton, Dissertation on Reading the Classics

        Our troops beat an army in plain fight.

5. Not unusually beautiful; unattractive. [from 17th c.]

6. (card games) Not a trump.

Synonyms

• (lacking adornment or ornamentation): no-frills, simple, unadorned, unseasoned; see also Thesaurus:bare-bones
• (of just one colour): monochrome
• (not exceptional): normal, ordinary
• (obvious): blatant, ostensible; see also Thesaurus:obvious or Thesaurus:explicit
• (intensifier): consarn, darned, stinking; see also Thesaurus:damned
• (honest and without deception): frank, sincere; see also Thesaurus:honest

Antonyms

• bells and whistles
• decorative
• exotic
• fancy
• ornate

Derived terms

Related terms

• plane
• planar

Translations

Adverb

plain (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Simply.

   It was just plain stupid.

   I plain forgot.

2. (archaic) Plainly; distinctly.

   Tell me plain: do you love me or no?

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman plainer, pleiner, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French pleindre, plaindre, from Latin plangere, present active infinitive of plang?.

Alternative forms

• plein

Noun

plain (plural plains)

1. (rare, poetic) A lamentation.
   • 1815, Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Isles, Canto IV, part IX

     The warrior-threat, the infant's plain,
     The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

Verb

plain (third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (reflexive, obsolete) To complain. [13th–19th c.]
   • c. 1390, William Landland, Piers Plowman, Prologue:

     Persones and parisch prestes · pleyned hem to þe bischop / Þat here parisshes were pore · sith þe pestilence tyme […].

2. (transitive, intransitive, now rare, poetic) To lament, bewail. [from 14th c.]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir J. Harrington to this entry?)

   • c. 1600, Joseph Hall, Satires

     Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set
     Her husband's rusty iron corselet;
     Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest,
     That never plain'd of his uneasy nest.

   • 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, "XXV", lines 5–9

     Then came I crying, and to-day, / With heavier cause to plain, / Depart I into death away, / Not to be born again.

Related terms

Etymology 3

From Old French plain, from Latin pl?num (“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from pl?nus (“level, even, flat”). Doublet of llano, piano, and plane.

Noun

plain (plural plains)

1. An expanse of land with relatively low relief, usually exclusive of forests, deserts, and wastelands.
   • 1961, J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato. In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.

     For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains, in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”

   Synonyms: flatland, grassland

   Hypernyms: land, terrain

   Hyponyms: prairie, steppe

2. (archaic) Synonym of field in reference to a battlefield.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Arbuthnot to this entry?)
3. (obsolete) Alternative spelling of plane: a flat geometric field.

Usage notes

• As with grassland(s), flatland(s), &c., plains can function as the plural of plain (There are ten principal low plains on Mars) or as its synonym (She lives in the plains), with a vague sense of greater expansiveness.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

plain (third-person singular simple present plains, present participle plaining, simple past and past participle plained)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To level; to raze; to make plain or even on the surface.
   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,^[1]

     Frownst thou thereat aspiring Lancaster,
     The sworde shall plane the furrowes of thy browes,

   • 1612, George Wither, Prince Henrie’s Obsequies, Elegy 24, in Egerton Brydges (editor), Restituta, Volume I, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1814, p. 399,^[2]

     Though kept by Rome’s and Mahomet’s chiefe powers;
     They should not long detain him there in thrall:
     We would rake Europe rather, plain the East;
     Dispeople the whole Earth before the doome:

2. (obsolete, transitive) To make plain or manifest; to explain.
   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Act III, Prologue,^[3]

     What’s dumb in show, I’ll plain with speech.

Anagrams

• Aplin, Lipan, Palin, Pinal, in lap, lapin, plani-

Dalmatian

Etymology

From Latin pl?nus. Compare Italian pieno, Romansch plain, Romanian plin, French plein.

Adjective

plain (feminine plaina)

1. full

French

Etymology

From Old French plain, from Latin pl?nus. Doublet of plan and piano.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl??/
• Homophones: plains, plein, pleins

Adjective

plain (feminine singular plaine, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plaines)

1. (obsolete) plane

Derived terms

• plain-pied
• plain-chant

Further reading

• “plain” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• alpin, lapin

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French plain, from Latin pl?nus.

Adjective

plain m (feminine singular plaine, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plaines)

1. full (not empty)

Old French

Etymology 1

From Latin pl?nus.

Adjective

plain m (feminine plaine)

1. full (not empty)
   • circa 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     De tant come ele l'ot veü,

     Que plains estoit de felenie.

     As she had seen

     He was full of evil

   Antonym: vuit

Descendants

• French: plein

Etymology 2

From Latin pl?num (“level ground, a plain”), neuter substantive from pl?nus (“level, even, flat”).

Noun

plain m (oblique plural plainz, nominative singular plainz, nominative plural plain)

1. plain (flat area)

Synonyms

• plaine

Descendants

• ? Dutch: plein
• ? Middle English:
  • English: plain
  • Scots: plain

Etymology 3

From Latin pl?nus (“level, even, flat”).

Adjective

plain m (oblique and nominative feminine singular plaine)

1. flat (not even or mountainous)

Romansch

Alternative forms

• plein (Sursilvan)
• plagn (Sutsilvan, Surmiran)

Etymology

From Latin pl?nus.

Adjective

plain m (feminine singular plaina, masculine plural plains, feminine plural plainas)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Puter, Vallader) full

English

Pronunciation

• (adjective, verb) IPA^(key): /a?t??????/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /?a?t??????/

Adjective

outgoing (comparative more outgoing, superlative most outgoing)

1. Extraverted: talkative, friendly, and social, especially with respect to meeting new people easily and comfortably.

   Tom is very outgoing and enjoys meeting people; his brother, on the other hand, is painfully shy.

   • 2003, Bernardo J. Carducci, Lisa Kaiser, The Shyness Breakthrough, page 124,

     Quieter parents, who prefer a less stimulating lifestyle, may be baffled and challenged by these same outgoing kids.

   • 1996, Stanley I. Greenspan, Jacqueline Salmon, The Challenging Child: Understanding, Raising, and Enjoying the Five “Difficult” Types of Children, page 308,

     The outgoing former leader may have difficulty slowing down, being reflective, and studying and may be insensitive in a close relationship.

   • 2006, Direct Selling Women's Alliance, More Build It Big: 101 Insider Secrets from Top Direct Selling Experts, page 264,

     Think of it this way: Some people are more outgoing, while others are more reserved.

   • 2010, Ruth Ames, This Totally Bites!, back cover,

     Twelve-year-old Emma-Rose Paley has always felt very different from her bubbly, outgoing parents.

2. (not comparable) Going out, on its way out.

   Is there any outgoing post?

   • 1917 August 27, President of the United States (Woodrow Wilson), Executive Order 2692,

     In the neighborhood of each defensive sea area the following entrances are designated for incoming and outgoing vessels: Atlantic. […] Designated entrance for outgoing vessels: The main entrance to the Panama Canal, between the breakwaters. Pacific. […] Designated entrance for outgoing vessels: Canal prism.

   • 1922, John Arthur Thomson, The Outline of Science, Volume I, Part III,

     There is struggle for food, accentuated by the fact that small items tend to be swept away by the outgoing tide or to sink down the slope to deep water.

   • 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 26,

     By KRIYA, the outgoing life force is not wasted and abused in the senses, but constrained to reunite with subtler spinal energies.

3. (not comparable) Being replaced in office (while still in office but after election has determined that he/she will be replaced).

   The outgoing politician wasn't too disappointed he'd lost the election; he was tired of political infighting.

   • 1893, Henry Billings Brown, Supreme Court of the United States, United States v. Fletcher: Opinion of the Court,

     […] it appears […] that, by an arrangement between the outgoing and incoming marshal, the latter was to have the fees earned upon all writs in the hands of the deputies of the former at the date the office changed hands. It further appeared that the outgoing marshal made no claim to these fees.

   • 1957, United Nations, Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency,

     The outgoing Board of Governors shall designate for membership on the Board the ten members most advanced in the technology of atomic energy including the production of source materials, […]

   • 1998, Suharto, Suharto's Resignation Speech,

     As of this day too, the Seventh Development Cabinet is outgoing and to the ministers I express my thanks.

Antonyms

• (extraverted): introverted, antisocial, reserved, shy, withdrawn, quiet, mousy
• (going out): incoming

Derived terms

• outgoingly
• outgoingness

Translations

Noun

outgoing (plural outgoings)

1. The act of leaving or going out; exit, departure.

   • the outgoings of the morning and evening

   • 1749, Jonathan Edwards, An Account of the Life of the Late Rev. David Brainerd

     […] any present thirstings for God, or ardent outgoings of their souls after divine objects […]

2. (chiefly in the plural) Money that leaves one's possession; expenditure, outlay, expense.
3. The extreme limit; the place of ending.

   • The outgoings of the border were at the north bay of the salt sea, at the south end of Jordan.

Synonyms

• outgang

Verb

outgoing

1. present participle of outgo

Anagrams

• going out