Earnest vs Desperate - What's the difference?
earnest | desperate |
Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
* Sir Philip Sidney
* Shakespeare
Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to jesting or feigned appearance); fixed determination; eagerness; intentness.
To be serious with; use in earnest.
* 1602 , Pastor Fido:
Serious in speech or action; eager; urgent; importunate; pressing; instant.
Ardent in the pursuit of an object; eager to obtain or do; zealous with sincerity; with hearty endeavour; heartfelt; fervent; hearty; — used in a good sense; as, earnest prayers .
Intent; fixed closely; as, earnest attention .
Possessing or characterised by seriousness; strongly bent; intent.
Strenuous; diligent.
Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; not trifling or feigned; important.
A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.
* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 365:
Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
* (William Shakespeare)
* , chapter=16
, title= Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
* Macaulay
Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.
Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
* (William Shakespeare)
* Macaulay
Extremely intense.
As adjectives the difference between earnest and desperate
is that earnest is serious in speech or action; eager; urgent; importunate; pressing; instant while desperate is being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.As a noun earnest
is gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.As a verb earnest
is to be serious with; use in earnest.As a proper noun Earnest
is a given name derived from Germanic, an occasional spelling variant of Ernest.earnest
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) ernest, eornest, from (etyl) eornest, eornost, .Noun
(-)- Take heed that this jest do not one day turn to earnest .
- given in earnest what I begged in jest
Derived terms
* earnestful * in earnestVerb
(en verb)- Let's prove among ourselves our armes in jest, That when we come to earnest them with men, We may them better use.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) eornest, from (etyl) .Adjective
(en-adj)- an earnest disposition
- earnest efforts
Derived terms
* (l) * (l)Etymology 3
Of uncertain origin; apparently related to (erres). Compare also (l).Noun
(en noun)- But if all this was viewed by Gladstone and the Cabinet as an earnest of St Petersburg's future good intentions in Central Asia, then disillusionment was soon to follow.
See also
* Earnest * earnest moneyAnagrams
* * * *desperate
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Since his exile she hath despised me most, / Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, / That I am desperate of obtaining her.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”}}
- desperate expedients
- a desperate offendress against nature
- the most desperate of reprobates