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Diffident vs Demur - What's the difference?

diffident | demur |

As an adjective diffident

is (archaic): lacking confidence in others; distrustful.

As a verb demur is

(obsolete) to linger; to stay; to tarry.

As a noun demur is

stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple.

diffident

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (archaic): Lacking confidence in others; distrustful.
  • Lacking confidence in one's self; distrustful of one's own powers; not self-reliant; timid; modest; bashful; characterized by modest reserve.
  • *
    • Having therefore—but hold, as we are diffident of our own abilities, let us here invite a superior power to our assistance.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1960 , author= , title=(Jeeves in the Offing) , section=chapter VIII , passage=At an early point in these exchanges I had started to sidle to the door, and I now sidled through it, rather like a diffident crab on some sandy beach trying to avoid the attentions of a child with a spade.}}

    demur

    English

    Verb

    (demurr)
  • (obsolete) To linger; to stay; to tarry
  • * Nicols
    • Yet durst not demur nor abide upon the camp.
  • To delay; to pause; to suspend proceedings or judgment in view of a doubt or difficulty; to hesitate; to put off the determination or conclusion of an affair.
  • * Hayward
    • Upon this rub, the English embassadors thought fit to demur .
  • To scruple or object; to take exception; to oppose; to balk
    • I demur to that statement.
    The personnel demurred at the management's new scheme.
  • (legal) To interpose a demurrer.
  • (obsolete) To suspend judgment concerning; to doubt of or hesitate about
    • The latter I demur , for in their looks / Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears. -
  • (obsolete) To cause delay to; to put off
  • * Quarles
    • He demands a fee, / And then demurs me with a vain delay.

    Related terms

    * demurrage * demurrer

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Stop; pause; hesitation as to proceeding; suspense of decision or action; scruple.
    • All my demurs but double his attacks; At last he whispers, ``Do; and we go snacks.'' -
  • * 2004 , (Richard Fortey), The Earth , Folio Society 2011, p. 132:
    • Most geologists today would accept such evidence without demur , but it was still ‘fringe’ science when du Toit was publishing.

    Derived terms

    * demureness

    References

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