different between pure vs earnest

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English pure, pur, from Old French pur, from Latin p?rus (“clean, free from dirt or filth, unmixed, plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- (“to cleanse, purify”). Displaced native Middle English lutter (“pure, clear, sincere”) (from Old English hl?tor, hluttor), Middle English skere (“pure, sheer, clear”) (from Old English sc?re and Old Norse sk?r), Middle English schir (“clear, pure”) (from Old English sc?r), Middle English smete, smeate (“pure, refined”) (from Old English sm?te; compare Old English m?re (“pure”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?pj??/, /?pj??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?pj??/, /?pj??/
• (cure-fir merger, rhotic) IPA^(key): /?pj?/
• (cure-fir merger, non-rhotic) IPA^(key): /?pj??/
• (US)
• Rhymes: -??(r), -??(?)

Adjective

pure (comparative purer or more pure, superlative purest or most pure)

1. Free of flaws or imperfections; unsullied.
3. Free of foreign material or pollutants.
   • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard

     A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy.

4. Free of immoral behavior or qualities; clean.
   • c. 1530, William Tyndale (translator), Bible, 1 Timothy, 5:22,

     Laye hondes sodely^[suddenly] on no man nether be partaker of other mes^[men's] synnes: kepe thy silfe pure.

5. Mere; that and that only.

   That idea is pure madness!

6. (of a branch of science) Done for its own sake instead of serving another branch of science.
7. (phonetics) Of a single, simple sound or tone; said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants.
8. (of sound) Without harmonics or overtones; not harsh or discordant.

Synonyms

• (free of flaws): see Thesaurus:pure
• (free of foreign material): see Thesaurus:raw
• (free of immoral behavior): innocent

Antonyms

• (free of flaws): dirty, flawed, impure
• (free of foreign material): contaminated, impure
• (free of immoral behavior): corrupt, guilty, sinful
• (done for its own sake): applied

Derived terms

• pure finder
• as pure as the driven snow

Related terms

• purification
• purify
• purity
• puritan
• puritanism
• purist
• purism

Translations

Adverb

pure (not comparable)

1. (Liverpudlian, Scotland) to a great extent or degree; extremely; exceedingly.

   You’re pure busy.

   • 1996, Trainspotting (film)

     I just get pure shy with the interview cats.

Translations

Verb

pure (third-person singular simple present pures, present participle puring, simple past and past participle pured)

1. (golf) to hit (the ball) completely cleanly and accurately

   Tiger Woods pured his first drive straight down the middle of the fairway.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To cleanse; to refine.

Noun

pure (countable and uncountable, plural pures)

1. One who, or that which, is pure.
   • 1845, The Lancet, page 187:

     ... the establishment of an inferior College, and the consequent connexion of the many thousands of British practitioners in medicine and surgery with a subordinate institution, and one that should be subservient to the government of the pures.

   • c. 1870, D. K. Gavan, Rocky Road to Dublin:

     Took a drop of the pure, to keep my spirits from sinking, […]

   • 1998, Christopher Leigh Connery, The Empire of the Text: Writing and Authority in Early Imperial China, Rowman & Littlefield (?ISBN), page 30:

     All interpretive frames will impose their categories on the object of historical analysis, and I am not proposing that this narrative of the "pures"; be rejected in favor of some phantasmatic framework that claims to derive more purely from the sources themselves. I will show in chapter 3 that, since the "pures" possibly did not even exist […]

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pj??/
• Rhymes: -??(r)
• (US) IPA^(key): /pj??/

Noun

pure (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of puer (“dung (e.g. of dogs)”)
   • 1851, H. Mayhew, London Labour and the London poor, vII. 142/1:

     […] Dogs'-dung is called ‘Pure’, from its cleansing and purifying properties.

   • 2001, Wendy Lawton, The Tinker's Daughter, ch. 8:

     Mary smelled the rancid odor of the tannery on the right side of the road. […]

     "What is that, Mary?" Jake asked.

     "'Tis a bag for collecting pure. That is going to be your job, Jake. You are to collect pure."

     "Pure? What is pure?"

     "Pure is another word for dung," Mary answered.

   • 2013, Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam, p. 28:

     […] surely there was something better for him than chasing the pure (footnote: A term, technically speaking, for dog muck, much prized by the tanneries.) […]

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• Peru, Pre-U, Prue, Pu'er, Rupe, pu'er, puer, re-up, reup

Danish

Etymology 1

From Latin p?re, the adverb of p?rus (“clean, pure”); or the definite form of pur (“pure”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pu?r?/, [?p?u???]

Adjective

pure

1. complete
2. (adverbial) completely

Inflection

Etymology 2

From French purée (“puree”).

Alternative forms

• puré

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pyre/, [p?y??æ]

Noun

pure c (singular definite pureen, plural indefinite pureer)

1. puree

Inflection

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pu?r?/, [?p?u???]

Adjective

pure

1. definite of pur
2. plural of pur

Esperanto

Adverb

pure

1. purely

Finnish

Verb

pure

1. inflection of purra:
   1. indicative present connegative
   2. second-person singular imperative present/present connegative

Anagrams

• Peru, peru

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /py?/
• Homophones: pur, purs, pures
• Rhymes: -y?

Adjective

pure

1. feminine singular of pur

Anagrams

• peur
• puer
• repu
• rupe, rupé

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

pure

1. inflection of pur:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pu.re/
• Rhymes: -ure

Etymology 1

Adjective

pure

1. feminine plural of puro

Etymology 2

From Latin p?r?, the adverb of p?rus.

Adverb

pure

1. too, also, as well

   Synonym: anche

2. well, surely
3. please, by all means
4. if you like; if you want (etc.)

Conjunction

pure

1. even though, even if, although
2. nevertheless

References

Anagrams

• Perù
• prue
• rupe

Latin

Etymology 1

From p?rus (“clean; pure”) and -e (“-ly, -ily”).

Adverb

p?r? (comparative p?rius, superlative p?rissim?)

1. clearly, brightly, cleanly
2. correctly, faultlessly, perfectly, purely

   Loqui pure.

   To speak correctly.

Synonyms

• (correctly): ?mend?t?

Etymology 2

Noun

p?re

1. ablative singular of p?s

References

• pure in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pure in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book?^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.

Anagrams

• puer, r?pe

Middle English

Alternative forms

• pur, puyr, pore, poure, peure, pu?r, puir, puire, puyre

Etymology

From Old French pur, from Latin p?rus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /piu?r/

Adjective

pure (comparative purer, superlative purest)

1. pure, unadulterated, undiluted, untarnished
2. entire, total, all
3. perfect, wonderful, unflawed
4. morally clean, pure, or upstanding
5. chaste
6. true, real, genuine, not counterfeit
7. clear, obvious, simple

Descendants

• Scots: puir, pure
• English: pure
• ? Cornish: pur

References

• “p?r(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-02.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

pure m (definite singular pureen, indefinite plural pureer, definite plural pureene)

1. alternative spelling of puré

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??re?/ (example of pronunciation)

Noun

pure m (definite singular pureen, indefinite plural purear, definite plural pureane)

1. alternative spelling of puré

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²p??.r?/ (example of pronunciation)

Adjective

pure

1. definite singular of pur
2. plural of pur

Rapa Nui

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *pule.

Noun

pure

1. cowrie

Swedish

Adjective

pure

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of pur.

Anagrams

• Peru

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??n?st/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???n?st/
• Homophone: Ernest

Etymology 1

From Middle English ernest, eornest, from Old English eornest, eornost, eornust (“earnestness, zeal, seriousness, battle”), from Proto-Germanic *ernustuz (“earnest, strength, solidity, struggle, fight”), a derivative of Proto-Germanic *arniz (“efficient, capable, diligent, sure”), from Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to cause to move, arouse, increase”). Cognate with West Frisian earnst (“earnest, seriousness”), Dutch ernst (“seriousness, gravity, earnest”), German Ernst (“seriousness, earnestness, zeal, vigour”), Icelandic ern (“brisk, vigorous”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (arniba, “secure, certain, sure”).

The adjective is from Middle English eornest, from Old English eornoste (“earnest, zealous, serious”), from the noun. Cognate with North Frisian ernste (“earnest”), Middle Low German ernest, ernst (“serious, earnest”), German ernst (“serious, earnest”).

Noun

earnest (uncountable)

1. Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
   • 1914, February 13, The Times, Obituary: Canon Augustus Jessopp

     He wrote well in a forcible, colloquial style, with the air of being tremendously in earnest, and full of knowledge which overflowed his pages, tricked out with somewhat boisterous illustrations.

   • c. 1575-a 1586, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

     Take heed that this jest do not one day turn to earnest.

   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III: Act 5, Scene 1

     That high All-Seer which I dallied with

     Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head

     And given in earnest what I begg'd in jest.

2. Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)

Derived terms

• earnestful
• in earnest

Translations

Verb

earnest (third-person singular simple present earnests, present participle earnesting, simple past and past participle earnested)

1. (transitive) To be serious with; use in earnest.
   • 1602, Pastor Fido:

     Let's prove among ourselves our armes in jest, That when we come to earnest them with men, We may them better use.

Adjective

earnest (comparative earnester or more earnest, superlative earnestest or most earnest)

1. (said of an action or an utterance) Serious or honest
2. (with a positive sense) Focused in the pursuit of an objective; eager to obtain or do.

3. Intent; focused; showing a lot of concentration.

4. (said of a person or a person's character) Possessing or characterised by seriousness.

5. Strenuous; diligent.

6. Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; important.

Derived terms

• earnestly
• earnestness
• in earnest

Translations

Etymology 2

Of uncertain origin; apparently related to erres. Compare also arles.

Noun

earnest (plural earnests)

1. A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.

   • Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

   • 1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society 2010, p. 365:

     But if all this was viewed by Gladstone and the Cabinet as an earnest of St Petersburg's future good intentions in Central Asia, then disillusionment was soon to follow.

Translations

See also

• Earnest
• earnest money

Etymology 3

earn +? -est

Verb

earnest

1. (archaic) second-person singular simple present form of earn

Anagrams

• Eastern, Saetern, Tareens, eastern, estrane, nearest, renates, sterane