different between zeal vs pity

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

• pittie, pitty, pitie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pitye, pitie, pittye, pitee, pite, from Anglo-Norman pité, pittee etc., from Old French pitet, pitié, from Latin piet?s. See also the doublets pietà and piety.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?ti/
• Rhymes: -?ti

Noun

pity (countable and uncountable, plural pities)

1. (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.

   • He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.

   • , Folio Society, 2006, p.5:

     The most usuall way to appease those minds we have offended […] is, by submission to move them to commiseration and pitty.

2. (countable) Something regrettable.

   • It was a thousand pities.

   • What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!

3. (obsolete) Piety.

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

Synonyms

• (mercy): ruth
• (something regrettable): shame

Translations

Verb

pity (third-person singular simple present pities, present participle pitying, simple past and past participle pitied)

1. (transitive) To feel pity for (someone or something). [from 15th c.]

   • Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

2. (transitive, now regional) To make (someone) feel pity; to provoke the sympathy or compassion of. [from 16th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.11:

     She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee; / That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.

   • a. 1681, Richard Allestree, Of Gods Method in giving Deliverance

     It pitieth them to see her in the dust.

Translations

Interjection

pity!

1. Short form of what a pity.

Synonyms

• shame, what a pity, what a shame

Translations

Derived terms

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?p?t?]

Verb

pity

1. inflection of pít:
   1. inanimate masculine plural passive participle
   2. feminine plural passive participle

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?it?/

Participle

pity

1. past passive participle of pi?

Declension

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?i.t?/

Participle

pity

1. masculine singular passive adjectival participle of pi?

Declension

Noun

pity f

1. inflection of pita:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural