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Condescend vs Gaudy - What's the difference?

condescend | gaudy |

As a verb condescend

is to come down from one's superior position; to deign (to do something).

As an adjective gaudy is

very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner.

As a noun gaudy is

one of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.

condescend

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (lb) To come down from one's superior position; to deign (to do something).
  • *1665 , (John Dryden), (The Indian Emperour) , act 1, sc.2:
  • *:Spain's mighty monarch/ In gracious clemency, does condescend / On these conditions, to become your friend.
  • *1847 , (Anne Bronte), Agnes Grey , Ch.5:
  • *:Fanny and little Harriet he seldom condescended to notice; but Mary Ann was something of a favourite.
  • (lb) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing (toward someone); to talk down (to someone).
  • *1861 , (Charles Dickens), (Great Expectations) , Ch.29:
  • *:"You must know," said Estella, condescending to me as a brilliant and beautiful woman might, "that I have no heart."
  • *1880 , , Clever Woman of the Family , Ch.7:
  • *:Ermine never let any one be condescending to her, and conducted the conversation with her usual graceful good breeding.
  • *
  • *:At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy?; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends , turning technicality into pabulum.
  • To consent, agree.
  • *1671 , (John Milton), (Samson Agonistes) , lines 1134-36:
  • *:Can they think me so broken, so debased / With corporal servitude, that my mind ever / Will condescend to such absurd commands?
  • *1868 , (Horatio Alger), Struggling Upward , Ch.3:
  • *:"This is the pay I get for condescending to let you go with me."
  • To come down.
  • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See * In sense “to talk down”, the derived participial adjective condescending (and corresponding adverb condescendingly) are more common than the verb itself.

    Synonyms

    * (come down from superior position) acquiesce, deign, stoop, vouchsafe * patronize, put on airs * (consent) yield * (come down) descend

    gaudy

    English

    Etymology 1

    Origin uncertain; perhaps from . A common claim that the word derives from , is not supported by evidence (the word was in use at least half a century before Gaudí was born).

    Adjective

    (er)
  • very showy or ornamented, now especially when excessive, or in a tasteless or vulgar manner
  • * Shakespeare
  • Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, / But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy .
  • * 1813 , , Pride and Prejudice
  • The rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture suitable to the fortune of its proprietor; but Elizabeth saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy nor uselessly fine; with less of splendour, and more real elegance, than the furniture of Rosings.
  • * 1887 , Homer Greene, Burnham Breaker
  • A large gaudy , flowing cravat, and an ill-used silk hat, set well back on the wearer's head, completed this somewhat noticeable costume.
  • * 2005 , Thomas Hauser & Marilyn Cole Lownes, "How Bling-bling Took Over the Ring", The Observer , 9 January 2005
  • Gaudy jewellery might offend some people's sense of style. But former heavyweight champion and grilling-machine entrepreneur George Foreman is philosophical about today's craze for bling-bling.
  • (obsolete) gay; merry; festive
  • (Tennyson)
  • * Shakespeare
  • Let's have one other gaudy night.
  • * Twain
  • And then, there he was, slim and handsome, and dressed the gaudiest and prettiest you ever saw...
    Synonyms
    * (excessively showy) tawdry, flashy, garish, kitschy *
    Derived terms
    * gaudily * gaudy night

    Noun

    (gaudies)
  • One of the large beads in the rosary at which the paternoster is recited.
  • (Gower)

    Etymology 2

    From Latin gaudium "joy".

    Noun

    (gaudies)
  • A reunion held by one of the colleges of the University of Oxford for alumni, normally held during the summer vacations.