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Composure vs Phlegmatic - What's the difference?

composure | phlegmatic |

As nouns the difference between composure and phlegmatic

is that composure is calmness of mind or matter, self-possession while phlegmatic is one who has a phlegmatic disposition.

As an adjective phlegmatic is

not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.

composure

English

Noun

  • Calmness of mind or matter, self-possession.
  • * Milton
    • We seek peace and composure .
  • * I. Watts
    • When the passions are all silent, the mind enjoys its most perfect composure .
  • *
    • “Did you want anything, ma’am?” I enquired, still preserving my external composure , in spite of her ghastly countenance and strange exaggerated manner.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 2 , author= , title=Wales 2-1 Montenegro , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Montenegro's early composure was shaken by that set-back and a visibly buoyed Wales nearly added a second goal when Bale broke past two defenders and fired a long-range shot that Bozovic tipped over}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1798 , author=Giacomo Casanova , title=The memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt , chapter=92 citation , passage=He began to lose his composure , and made mistakes, his cards got mixed up, and his scoring was wild.}}
  • (obsolete) The act of composing, or that which is composed; a composition.
  • * Evelyn
    • Signor Pietro, who had an admirable way both of composure [in music] and teaching.
  • (obsolete) Orderly adjustment; disposition.
  • * Woodward
    • Various composures and combinations of these corpuscles.
  • (obsolete) frame; make; temperament
  • * Shakespeare
    • His composure must be rare indeed / Whom these things can not blemish.
  • (obsolete) A combination; a union; a bond.
    • (Shakespeare)
    (Webster 1913)

    Synonyms

    * (calmness) equanimity * (calmness) See also

    phlegmatic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * phlegmatick * phlegmaticke * phlegmatique

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not easily excited to action or passion; calm; sluggish.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1873 , author=Jules Verne , title=Around the World in 80 Days , chapter=2 citation , passage=Calm and phlegmatic , with a clear eye, Mr. Fogg seemed a perfect type of that English composure which Angelica Kauffmann has so skilfully represented on canvas.}}
  • * 2013 , A.O. Scott, “How It Looks to Think: Watch Her,” Rev. of , dir. by Margarethe von Trotta, New York Times 29 May 2013: C1. Print.
    • Their friendship (immortalized in a splendid volume of letters that has clearly served as one of Ms. von Trotta's sources) is a fascinating study in cultural and temperamental contrast, an impulsive and witty American paired with a steady, phlegmatic German.
  • (archaic) Abounding in phlegm; as, phlegmatic humors; a phlegmatic constitution.
  • Generating, causing, or full of phlegm.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
    • cold and phlegmatic habitations
  • Watery (en).

    • Synonyms

    * apathetic, sluggish, cold-blooded, unflappable, stoic

    Related terms

    * phlegm * phlegmatically

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who has a phlegmatic disposition.