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Earnest vs Precation - What's the difference?

earnest | precation |

As nouns the difference between earnest and precation

is that earnest is gravity; serious purpose; earnestness while precation is a prayer or act of praying; an earnest request.

As a verb earnest

is to be serious with; use in earnest.

As an adjective earnest

is serious in speech or action; eager; urgent; importunate; pressing; instant.

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

(-)
  • Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
    • Take heed that this jest do not one day turn to earnest .
  • * Shakespeare
    • given in earnest what I begged in jest
  • Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to jesting or feigned appearance); fixed determination; eagerness; intentness.
    • Derived terms
    * earnestful * in earnest

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be serious with; use in earnest.
  • * 1602 , Pastor Fido:
    • 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)
  • 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.
    • an earnest disposition
  • Strenuous; diligent.
    • earnest efforts
  • Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; not trifling or feigned; important.
    • Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)

    Etymology 3

    Of uncertain origin; apparently related to (erres). Compare also (l).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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:
    • 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 money

    Anagrams

    * * * *

    precation

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (rare) A prayer or act of praying; an earnest request.
  • * 1881 , , History of the Church of England , Vol. 2, Routledge, p. 431:
    • The Litany . . . was ordered to be sung immediately before High Mass, by the priests "with others of the choir". . . . and this solemn form of precation , like so many other things, assumed the livery of uniformity.
  • * 1893 , Charles P. G. Scott, "English Words Which Hav Gaind or Lost an Initial Consonant by Attraction," Transactions of the American Philological Association , vol. 24, p. 123:
    • The full form of the precation was God give you a good even .
  • * 1996 , J. L. Styan, The English Stage , ISBN 9780521556361, pp. xiii-xiv:
    • The present inquiry therefore aims to pay more than lipservice to the notion of drama as performance, and to make more than a gesture towards the idea of theatre as a composite art, one that mixes music and mime, dance and song, painting and design, poetry and narrative, and much else. It is precation and response, and seeks out evidence of the manipulation of the audience and its powers of perception.

    Derived terms

    * precative * precatory

    References

    *Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.

    Anagrams

    *