different between temerity vs tenacity

English

Etymology

temer(arious) +? -ity, from Middle English temerite, temeryte, from Old French temerité, from Latin temerit?s (“chance, accident, rashness”), from temer? (“by chance, casually, rashly”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t??m???ti/, /t??m???ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /t??m???ti/
• Rhymes: -???ti

Noun

temerity (countable and uncountable, plural temerities)

1. (uncountable) Reckless boldness; foolish bravery.

   Synonyms: audacity, foolhardiness, rashness, recklessness

   • 1569, Thomas Pearson, trans., "The Second Paradox," in The booke of Marcus Tullius Cicero entituled Paradoxa Stoicorum, T. Marshe (London),

     Neyther the spightfull temerity and rashnes of variable fortune, nor the envious hart burning and in iurious hatred of mine enemies shold be able once to damnify me.
2. (countable) An act or case of reckless boldness.
   • 1910, Edith Wharton, "The Blond Beast," Scribner's Magazine, vol. 48 (Sept),

     Draper, dear lad, had the illusion of an "intellectual sympathy" between them.... Draper's temerities would always be of that kind.

3. (uncountable) Effrontery; impudence.

   Synonyms: brashness, cheek, gall, chutzpah

Related terms

• intemerate
• temerarious
• temerary
• temerous

Translations

Further reading

• Webster, Noah (1828) , “temerity”, in An American Dictionary of the English Language
• temerity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “temerity” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "temerity" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002)
• "temerity" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• “temerity”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)
• temerity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• temerity at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Etymology

tenac(ious) +? -ity, from Middle French ténacité, from Latin ten?cit?s.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t??næs.?.ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /t??næs?ti/
• Hyphenation: tena?city

Noun

tenacity (countable and uncountable, plural tenacities)

1. The quality or state of being tenacious, or persistence of purpose; tenaciousness.
   • 2009, Jorge Cham, PHD Comics: Softball: younger and faster:

     — Our opponents may be younger, faster and less out of shape than we are, but we have something they’ll never have!

     — Tenure?

     — Tenacity!

2. The quality of bodies which keeps them from parting without considerable force, as distinguished from brittleness, fragility, mobility, etc.
3. The effect of this attraction, cohesiveness.
4. The quality of bodies which makes them adhere to other bodies; adhesiveness, viscosity.
5. (physics) The greatest longitudinal stress a substance can bear without tearing asunder, usually expressed with reference to a unit area of the cross section of the substance, as the number of pounds per square inch, or kilograms per square centimeter, necessary to produce rupture.

Synonyms

• (state of being tenacious): tenaciousness, determination, persistency, retentiveness, stubbornness
• (quality keeping bodies together): cohesiveness
• (quality making bodies adhere): adhesiveness, viscosity

Antonyms

• (quality keeping bodies together): brittleness, fragility, mobility

Related terms

• tenacious
• tenaciously

Translations