different between sincere vs zestful

English

Etymology

From Middle French sincere, from Latin sincerus (“genuine”), from Proto-Indo-European *sin- + *?er- (“grow”), from which also Ceres (“goddess of harvest”) from which English cereal.

Unrelated to sine (“without”) cera (“wax”) (folk etymology); see Wikipedia discussion.

Pronunciation

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

Adjective

sincere (comparative more sincere or sincerer, superlative most sincere or sincerest)

1. Genuine; meaning what one says or does; heartfelt.

   I believe he is sincere in his offer to help.

2. Meant truly or earnestly.

   She gave it a sincere, if misguided effort.

3. (archaic) clean; pure

Synonyms

• earnest

Antonyms

• insincere

Related terms

• cereal
• Ceres
• crescent
• sincerity
• sincereness

Translations

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• cereins, ceresin, cerines, renices

Esperanto

Etymology

sincera +? -e

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sin?t?sere/
• Hyphenation: sin?ce?re
• Rhymes: -ere

Adverb

sincere

1. sincerely

Antonyms

• malsincere (“insincerely”)

Italian

Adjective

sincere f pl

1. feminine plural of sincero

Anagrams

• censire, crisene, recensì, recinse, scernei, secerni

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb

sinc?r? (not comparable)

1. uprightly, honestly, frankly, sincerely
   • 1st century, Catullus, Poem 109

     Di magni, facite ut vere promittere possit // atque id sincere dicat ex animo

Etymology 2

Adjective

sinc?re

1. vocative masculine singular of sinc?rus

References

• sincere in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sincere in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Middle French

Etymology

First attested in 1441, borrowed from Latin sinc?rus.

Adjective

sincere m or f (plural sinceres)

1. sincere (genuinely meaning what one says or does)

Descendants

• ? English: sincere
• French: sincère

References

Spanish

Verb

sincere

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of sincerarse.

English

Etymology

zest +? -ful

Adjective

zestful (comparative more zestful, superlative most zestful)

1. Having a spirited love of life; ebullient.
   • 1957, Arthur Upfield, Bony Buys a Woman, London: Heinemann, 1967, Chapter 13, p. 117,^[1]

     Debonair youth! The spurs, the wide felt hat, the open shirt, the belt holding the array of small pouches, including a holstered revolver, the delight in the long stock-whip having a bright green silk cracker to produce loud reports, ranging from slow rifle fire to the rat-tat-tat of a machine-gun, all told the story of zestful youth.

2. Eager, enthusiastic.
   • 1933, H. G. Wells, The Shape of Things to Come, London: Hutchinson & Co., 1935, Book 1, § 10, p. 77,^[2]

     […] there appeared a narrowly patriotic government, which presently developed into an aggressive, vindictive and pitiless dictatorship, and set itself at once to the zestful persecution of the unfortunate ethnic minorities […]

   • 1968, Donald Barthelme, “The Dolt” in Sixty Stories, New York: Dutton, 1982, p. 94,^[3]

     […] the former priest, by now habituated to military life, and even zestful for it, enlisted under the new young king, with the rank of captain.

Derived terms

• zestfully
• zestfulness

Translations

Anagrams

• Fultzes, Zufelts