Keen vs Happy - What's the difference?
keen | happy |
showing a quick and ardent willingness or responsiveness, enthusiastic, eager; interested, intense.
vehement; fierce; as, a keen appetite.
* (rfdate),
* (rfdate), Shakespeare
sharp; having a fine edge or point.
* (rfdate) :
acute of mind; sharp; penetrating; having or expressing mental acuteness.
* (rfdate),
* (rfdate),
bitter; piercing; acrimonious; cutting; stinging; severe; as, keen satire or sarcasm.
* (rfdate)
piercing; penetrating; cutting; sharp; -- applied to cold, wind, etc,; as, a keen wind; the cold is very keen.
* (rfdate),
Enthusiastic
(US, informal, dated) Marvelous.
(UK) extremely low as to be competitive.
(obsolete) brave, courageous; bold, audacious.
(rare) To sharpen; to make cold.
* (rfdate), Thomson.
To utter a keen.
* (rfdate) Stuart Howard-Jones (1904-1974), Hibernia.'' Collected in ''The New Oxford Book of English Light Verse, 1978.
To utter with a loud wailing voice or wordless cry.
*
To mourn.
*
Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous.
* 1769 , Oxford Standard text, , 144, xv,
* 1777 , (Alexander Pope), An Essay on Man in Four Epistles: Argument of Epistle II'', in ''The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq , Volume III,
Favored by luck or fortune; lucky.
* 1661 , (Robert Boyle), (The Sceptical Chymist) , 2006, Elibron Classics (imprint),
Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous.
* 1761 , (Jonathan Swift), A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation'': Introduction, in ''The works of Dr Jonathan Swift , Volume VII,
Content, satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something).
(As a suffix to a noun) favouring or inclined to use, as in trigger-happy.
* {{quote-news
, year=2012
, date=August 21
, author=Jason Heller
, title=The Darkness: Hot Cakes (Music Review)
, work=The Onion AV Club
As adjectives the difference between keen and happy
is that keen is showing a quick and ardent willingness or responsiveness, enthusiastic, eager; interested, intense while happy is experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; having the feeling arising from the consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, as peace, tranquillity, comfort; contented; joyous.As a verb keen
is to sharpen; to make cold.As a noun keen
is a prolonged wail for a deceased person.keen
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at (l), (l).Alternative forms
* keene, kene (archaic)Adjective
(er)- Of full keen will.
- So keen and greedy to confound a man.
- That my keen knife see not the wound it makes.
- To make our wits more keen .
- Before the keen inquiry of her thought.
- Good father cardinal, cry thou amen to my keen curses.
- Breasts the keen air, and carols as he goes.
- I'm keen to learn another language.
- I'm keen on learning another language.
- I'm keen on languages.
- I'm keen about learning languages.
- I'm keen for help.
- ''"Do you want to learn another language?" / "I'm keen ."
- I just got this peachy keen new dress.
- keen prices
Usage notes
* Keen is often used in the composition of words, most of which are of obvious signification; as, keen-edged, keen-eyed, keen-sighted, keen-witted, etc.Synonyms
* prompt; eager; ardent; sharp; acute; cutting; penetrating; biting; severe; sarcastic; satirical; piercing; shrewd. * See alsoDerived terms
* keen-witted * keen as mustard * keen on * keenly * keennessVerb
(en verb)- Cold winter keens the brightening flood.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- Keen —meaning 'brisk'? Nay, here the Language warps:
'Tis singing bawdy Ballads to a Corpse.
Anagrams
* ----happy
English
Adjective
(er)- Happy' is that people, that is in such a case: yea, ' happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
page 26,
- The learn'd is happy' nature to explore, / The fool is ' happy that he knows no more ;
- Music makes me feel happy .
page 227,
- I may presume that what I have hitherto discoursed will induce you to think, that chymists have been much more happy in finding experiments than the causes of them; or in assigning the principles by which they may best be explained.
page 246,
- For instance, one lady can give an an?wer better than a?k a que?tion : one gentleman is happy at a reply ; another excels in a rejoinder : one can revive a langui?hing conver?ation by a ?udden ?urpri?ing ?entence ;.
- Are you happy to pay me back by the end of the week?
- Are you happy with your internet service provider?
citation, page= , passage=“Baby, I was a loser / Several years on the dole / An Englishman with a very high voice / Doing rock ’n’ roll,” sings falsetto-happy frontman Justin Hawkins at the start of “Every Inch Of You,” Hot Cakes ’ opener.}}
