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Conceit vs Selfishness - What's the difference?

conceit | selfishness |

As nouns the difference between conceit and selfishness

is that conceit is (obsolete) something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought while selfishness is the quality of being selfish, the condition of putting one's own interests before those of others.

As a verb conceit

is (obsolete) to form an idea; to think.

conceit

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Noun

  • (obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xxvi. 12
  • a man wise in his own conceit
  • The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
  • a man of quick conceit
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.
  • Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
  • * Shakespeare
  • His wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.
  • (obsolete) Opinion, (neutral) judgment.
  • * 1499 , (John Skelton), The Bowge of Courte :
  • By him that me boughte, than quod Dysdayne, / I wonder sore he is in suche cenceyte .
  • (countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.
  • * L'Estrange
  • On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit .
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Some to conceit alone their works confine, / And glittering thoughts struck out at every line.
  • * Dryden
  • Tasso is full of conceits which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature.
  • (countable, rhetoric, literature) An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.
  • (uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.
  • * Cotton
  • Plumed with conceit he calls aloud.
  • Design; pattern.
  • (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * conceited * conceitedly * conceitedness * self-conceit

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To form an idea; to think.
  • * 1643 : , The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
  • Those whose vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes.
  • (obsolete) To conceive.
  • * South
  • The strong, by conceiting themselves weak, are therebly rendered as inactive as if they really were so.
  • * Shakespeare
  • One of two bad ways you must conceit me, / Either a coward or a flatterer.

    selfishness

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia selfishness)
  • the quality of being selfish, the condition of putting one's own interests before those of others
  • Antonyms

    * selflessness