different between stillness vs composure

English

Etymology

From Middle English stilnesse, from Old English stilnes (“stillness, quiet; absence of noise or disturbance, release, relaxation; silence, abstention from speech; absence of disturbance or molestation, tranquility, peace, security; that which appeases”), equivalent to still +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?st?ln?s/
• Hyphenation: still?ness

Noun

stillness (countable and uncountable, plural stillnesses)

1. The quality or state of being still.

   Synonyms: calmness, motionlessness, inactivity, inertia

2. Habitual silence or quiet; taciturnity.

   Synonyms: quietness, silence

Translations

References

• stillness in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

compose +? -ure

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?m?po???/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?m?p????/
• Hyphenation: com?po?sure

Noun

composure (countable and uncountable, plural composures)

1. Calmness of mind or matter, self-possession.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, London, Book 6, lines 559-560,^[1]

     That all may see who hate us, how we seek

     Peace and composure […]

   • 1724, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, London: John Clark & Richard Hett, 3rd edition, 1729, Chapter 3, Section 3, p. 203,^[2]

     It would be also of great Use to us to form our deliberate Judgments of Persons and Things in the calmest and serenest Hours of Life, when the Passions of Nature are all silent, and the Mind enjoys its most perfect Composure […]

   • “Did you want anything, ma’am?” I enquired, still preserving my external composure, in spite of her ghastly countenance and strange exaggerated manner.

   • 1894, Arthur Machen (translator), The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt by Giacomo Casanova, London: Elek Books, Volume 4, Chapter 16, p. 407,^[3]

     He began to lose his composure, and made mistakes, his cards got mixed up, and his scoring was wild.
2. (obsolete) The act of composing, or that which is composed; a composition.
   • 1818, John Evelyn, Memoirs, edited by William Bray, London: Henry Colburn, 2nd edition, Volume I, entry for 10 March, 1685, p. 592,^[5]

     […] Sign^r Pietro […] had an admirable way both of composure [in music] and teaching.

3. (obsolete) Orderly adjustment; disposition.
   • 1695, John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, London: Richard Wilkin, Part 5, p. 230,^[6]

     […] from the various Composures and Combinations of these Corpusoles together, happen all the Varieties of the Bodies formed out of them […]

4. (obsolete) Frame; make; temperament.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene 4,^[7]

     […] his composure must be rare indeed

     Whom these things can not blemish […]

5. (obsolete) A combination; a union; a bond.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act II, Scene 3,^[8]

     […] their fraction is more our wish than their faction: but it was a strong composure a fool could disunite.

Synonyms

• (calmness): equanimity
• (calmness): See also Thesaurus:calm

Translations