Eschew vs Forbear - What's the difference?
eschew | forbear |
To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.
To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
* Bible, 1 Kings xxii. 6
To refuse; to decline; to give no heed.
* Bible, Ezekiel ii. 7
To control oneself when provoked.
* Cowper
* Old proverb
* [1906] 2004, Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville, Ethel Wedgwood tr.
* [1936] 2004, Raymond William Firth, We the Tikopia [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=Eiji-EnuhXUC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&sig=aB2VV0fcWv6lkQPQatQQbDhlm_8]
* 1997, H. L. Hix, Understanding W. S. Merwin [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=8JIveUt8StQC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&sig=_AETFoZUYlti38_Va0zOHD4yZTk]
As verbs the difference between eschew and forbear
is that eschew is (formal) to avoid; to shun, to shy away from while forbear is to keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.As a noun forbear is
.eschew
English
Usage notes
* The verb is not normally applied to the avoidance or shunning of a person or physical object, but rather, only to the avoidance or shunning of an idea, concept, or other intangible.Quotations
{{timeline , 1500s=1599 , 1900s=1927 , 2010s=2014}} * *: What cannot be eschew’d must be embrac’d. * 1927 , *: He could afford no servants, and would admit but few visitors to his absolute solitude; eschewing close friendships and receiving his rare acquaintances in one of the three ground-floor rooms which he kept in order. * '>citationDerived terms
* (l)References
forbear
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) forberen, from (etyl) . (got)Verb
- Shall I go to battle, or shall I forbear ?
- Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear .
- The kindest and the happiest pair / Will find occasion to forbear .
- Both bear and forbear .
Etymology 2
Noun
(en noun)- Sirs, I am quite sure that the King of England's forbears rightly and justly lost the conquered lands that I hold [...]
- One does not take one’s family name therefrom, and again the position of the mother in that group is determined through her father and his male forbears in turn; this too is a patrilineal group.
- Beginning with the bald declaration “I think I was cold in the womb,” the speaker in “The Forbears'” then decides that his brother (who died soon after birth) must also have been cold in the womb, like his grandfather John and the ' forbears who antedated John: