different between zeal vs confidence

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

• confidency (dated)

Etymology

From Latin c?nf?dentia (possibly via Old French confidence), from c?nf?d? (“believe, confide in”) from con- (“with”) + f?d? (“trust”).

Morphologically confide +? -ence.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?n'f?d?ns, IPA^(key): /?k?nf?d?ns/

Noun

confidence (countable and uncountable, plural confidences)

1. Self-assurance.
2. A feeling of certainty; firm trust or belief; faith.
3. Information held in secret; a piece of information shared but to thence be kept in secret.
4. (dated) Boldness; presumption.

Antonyms

• (self-assurance): timidity

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

• confidence on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin c?nf?dentia. Doublet of confiance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.fi.d??s/

Noun

confidence f (plural confidences)

1. confidence, secret

Related terms

• confident

References

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