different between tenacity vs pluck

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (“to pluck, pull away, tear”), also Old English ply??an ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"; > Modern English plitch), from Proto-Germanic *plukk?n?, *plukkijan? (“to pluck”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Perhaps related to Old English pullian (“to pull, draw; pluck off; snatch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian plukje (“to pluck”), Dutch plukken (“to pluck”), Limburgish plógte (“to pluck”), Low German plukken (“to pluck”), German pflücken (“to pluck, pick”), Danish and Norwegian plukke (“to pick”), Swedish plocka (“to pick, pluck, cull”), Icelandic plokka, plukka (“to pluck, pull”). More at pull.

An alternate etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukk?n?, *plukkijan? may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilucc?re, *pilic?re, a derivative of Latin pil?re (“to deprive of hair, make bald, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, finds difficulties with this and cites gaps in historical evidence.

The noun sense of "heart, liver, and lights of an animal" comes from it being plucked out of the carcass after the animal is killed; the sense of "fortitude, boldness" derives from this meaning, originally being a boxing slang denoting a prize-ring, with semantic development from "heart", the symbol of courage, to "fortitude, boldness".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Verb

pluck (third-person singular simple present plucks, present participle plucking, simple past and past participle plucked or (obsolete) pluckt)

1. (transitive) To pull something sharply; to pull something out
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Ch.I:

     The girl stooped to pluck a rose, and as she bent over it, her profile was clearly outlined.
2. (transitive) To take or remove (someone) quickly from a particular place or situation.
3. (transitive, music) To gently play a single string, e.g. on a guitar, violin etc.

4. (transitive) To remove feathers from a bird.
5. (transitive) To rob, fleece, steal forcibly

6. (transitive) To play a string instrument pizzicato.

7. (intransitive) To pull or twitch sharply.

8. (Britain, college slang, obsolete) To be rejected after failing an examination for a degree.
9. Of a glacier: to transport individual pieces of bedrock by means of gradual erosion through freezing and thawing.

Derived terms

• plucker
• plucking
• pluck up

Translations

Noun

pluck (countable and uncountable, plural plucks)

1. An instance of plucking or pulling sharply.
   • 2006, Tom Cunliffe, Complete Yachtmaster (page 40)

     If you find yourself in this position, there is nothing for it but to haul out using external assistance. This may be from a friend who will give you a pluck off the wall, or you may be able to manage from your own resources.

2. The lungs, heart with trachea and often oesophagus removed from slaughtered animals.
4. (informal, figuratively, uncountable) Guts, nerve, fortitude or persistence.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:courage

5. (African-American Vernacular, slang, uncountable) Cheap wine.

   Synonym: plonk

Derived terms

• plucky

Translations

References

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

Anagrams

• UK plc