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Diffident vs Inconfident - What's the difference?

diffident | inconfident |

As adjectives the difference between diffident and inconfident

is that diffident is (archaic): lacking confidence in others; distrustful while inconfident is (rare) unconfident; lacking confidence.

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.}}

    inconfident

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (rare) unconfident; lacking confidence
  • * 1914 , American Psychological Association, Psychological monographs (volume 17, page 50)
    • This is in perfect accord with our finding that the confident judgment of a given subject is more liable to be correct than an inconfident one by the same subject.