different between zeal vs assurance

English

Etymology

From Middle English zele, from Old French zel, from Late Latin z?lus, from Ancient Greek ????? (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”), from Proto-Indo-European *yeh?- (“to search”). Related to jealous.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /zi?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /zil/
• Rhymes: -i?l

Noun

zeal (countable and uncountable, plural zeals)

1. The fervour or tireless devotion for a person, cause, or ideal and determination in its furtherance; diligent enthusiasm; powerful interest.

   Synonyms: ardour, eagerness, enthusiasm, intensity, passion

   Antonym: apathy

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Romans 10.2,^[1]

     […] I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

   • 1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, London: Jacob Tonson, Part 3, p. 96,^[2]

     Zeal, the blind conductor of the will

   • 1779, David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Part 12, pp. 143-144,^[3]

     […] the highest zeal in religion and the deepest hypocrisy, so far from being inconsistent, are often or commonly united in the same individual character.

   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, London: John Murray, Volume 1, Chapter 14, p. 250,^[4]

     [He] would begin admiring her drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly like a would-be lover,

   • 1962, Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Chapter 15, p. 248,^[5]

     The stockman’s zeal for eliminating the coyote has resulted in plagues of field mice, which the coyote formerly controlled.

2. (obsolete) A person who exhibits such fervour or tireless devotion.

   Synonym: zealot

   • 1614, Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, London: Robert Allot, Act V, Scene 5, p. 85,^[6]

     […] like a malicious purblinde zeale as thou art!

   • 1642, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, London: Andrew Crooke, p. 5,^[7]

     […] there are questionlesse both in Greeke, Roman and Africa Churches, solemnities, and ceremonies, whereof the wiser zeales doe make a Christian use, and stand condemned by us;

3. The collective noun for a group of zebras.

   Synonyms: dazzle, herd

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Elza, laze, zale

English

Alternative forms

• assuraunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English assuraunce, from Old French asseürance, from asseürer; as if assure +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??????ns/, /?????ns/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???????ns/, /???????ns/
• Rhymes: -????ns
• Hyphenation: as?sur?ance

Noun

assurance (countable and uncountable, plural assurances)

1. The act of assuring; a declaration tending to inspire full confidence; that which is designed to give confidence.

   • Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
2. The state of being assured; firm persuasion; full confidence or trust; freedom from doubt; certainty.

   • Let us draw with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

3. Firmness of mind; undoubting, steadiness; intrepidity; courage; confidence; self-reliance.

   • the affairs of the Tarkish camp together with assurance

   • Conversation, when they come into the world, soon gives them a becoming assurance

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] His air, of self-confident assurance, seemed that of a man well used to having his own way.

4. Excess of boldness; impudence; audacity

   his assurance is intolerable
5. (obsolete) Betrothal; affiance.
6. (insurance) Insurance; a contract for the payment of a sum on occasion of a certain event, as loss or death. Assurance is used in relation to life contingencies, and insurance in relation to other contingencies. It is called temporary assurance, in the time within which the contingent event must happen is limited.
7. (law) Any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property; a conveyance; a deed.
   • c. 1766, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England

     the legal evidences of the conveyance of property are called the common assurances of the kingdom.

8. (theology) Subjective certainty of one's salvation.

Derived terms

Translations

References

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

Anagrams

• anacruses

French

Etymology

From assurer +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.sy.???s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

assurance f (plural assurances)

1. insurance
2. assurance

Related terms

• assurer
• assureur

Further reading

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