different between strength vs patience

English

Etymology

From Middle English strengthe, from Old English strengþu (“strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *strangiþu (“strongness; strength”), equivalent to strong +? -th. Cognate with Dutch strengte (“strength”), German Low German Strengde, Strengte (“harshness; rigidity; strictness; severity”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /st???k?/, [st??????k?], [st?????n??]
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): [st??????k?]
• Rhymes: -???, -?n?

Noun

strength (countable and uncountable, plural strengths)

1. The quality or degree of being strong.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5,^[1]

     Our castle’s strength will laugh a siege to scorn.

   Antonym: weakness

2. The intensity of a force or power; potency.
   • 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations

     Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

3. The strongest part of something; that on which confidence or reliance is based.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 46.1,^[2]

     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

   • 1649, Jeremy Taylor, The Great Examplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution, London: Francis Ash, Part 1, Section 4, Discourse 2, p. 66,^[3]

     […] certainly there is not in the world a greater strength against temptations, then is deposited in an obedient understanding […] .

4. A positive attribute.

   Antonym: weakness

5. (obsolete) An armed force, a body of troops.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 3,^[4]

     Thou princely leader of our English strength,

     Never so needful on the earth of France,

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act II, Scene 1,^[5]

     That done, dissever your united strengths,

     And part your mingled colours once again;

6. (obsolete) A strong place; a stronghold.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 7, lines 140-143,^[6]

     All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

     This inaccessible high strength, the seat

     Of Deitie supream, us dispossest,

     He trusted to have seis’d […]

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

strength (third-person singular simple present strengths, present participle strengthing, simple past and past participle strengthed)

1. (obsolete) To strengthen (all senses). [12th-17th c.]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:strengthen

English

Etymology

From Middle English pacience, from Old French pacience (modern French patience), from Latin patientia. Displaced native Middle English thuld, thuild (“patience”) (from Old English þyld (“patience”)), Middle English thole (“patience”) (from Old Norse þol (“patience, endurance”)), Middle English bil?fing, bileaving (“patience, perseverance, remaining”) (from Old English bel?fan (“to endure, survive”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pe???ns/

Noun

patience (usually uncountable, plural patiences)

1. The quality of being patient.
2. Any of various card games that can be played by one person. Called solitaire in the US. (card game).

Synonyms

• thild
• thole (obsolete, rare, or regional)

Antonyms

• impatience

Related terms

• passion
• passionate
• passive
• passivity
• patient

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: pasensi

Translations

Further reading

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

See also

• clock patience
• garden patience

French

Etymology

From Old French pacience, borrowed from Latin patientia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.sj??s/

Noun

patience f (plural patiences)

1. patience

Derived terms

• perdre patience
• prendre son mal en patience

Related terms

• patient

Further reading

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

Middle English

Noun

patience

1. Alternative form of pacience