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Mettle vs Temerity - What's the difference?

mettle | temerity |

As nouns the difference between mettle and temerity

is that mettle is a quality of endurance and courage while temerity is (not countable) reckless boldness; foolish bravery.

mettle

English

Noun

(-)
  • A quality of endurance and courage.
  • * 360 BCE , , Book VIII.
    • In the succeeding generation rulers will be appointed who have lost the guardian power of testing the metal of your different races, which, like Hesiod's, are of gold and silver and brass and iron.
  • * 1599 , '', act iv, scene 8 (''First Folio ed.)
    • By this Day and this Light, the fellow ha's mettell enough in his belly.
  • * 2001 , Harry J. Alexandrowicz, Testing your Mettle: Tough Problems and Real-world Solutions for Middle and High School Teachers , page xiii
    • Please read on and discover the issues in education that test the mettle of those who experience this world every day.
  • Good temperament and character.
  • * 1868 , , Bleak House
    • The arrival of this unexpected heir soon taking wind in the court, still makes good for the Sol, and keeps the court upon its mettle .
  • (obsolete) Metal; a metallic substance.
  • * 1837 , Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy , page 78
    • They have neither gold nor silver of their own, wine nor oyl, or scarce any corn growing in those United Provinces, little or no wood, tin, lead, iron, silk, wooll, any stuff almost, or mettle ; and yet Hungary, Transilvania, that brag of their mines, fertile England, cannot compare with them.

    Synonyms

    * (quality of endurance and courage) courage, heart, spirit

    Related terms

    * mettlesome

    temerity

    English

    Noun

  • (not countable) Reckless boldness; foolish bravery.
  • * 1569 , Thomas Pearson, trans., "The Second Paradox," in The booke of Marcus Tullius Cicero entituled Paradoxa Stoicorum , T. Marshe (London),
    • Neyther the spightfull temerity and rashnes of variable fortune, nor the envious hart burning and in iurious hatred of mine enemies shold be able once to damnify me.
  • * 1837 , , The Pickwick Papers , ch. 17,
    • One day when he knew old Lobbs was out, Nathaniel Pipkin had the temerity to kiss his hand to Maria Lobbs.
  • * 1886 , , The Mayor of Casterbridge , ch. 21
    • Elizabeth trotted through the open door in the dusk, but becoming alarmed at her own temerity , she went quickly out again by another which stood open in the lofty wall of the back court.
  • * 1913 , , The Return of Tarzan , ch. 21,
    • I am surprised that you, sir, a man of letters yourself, should have the temerity so to interrupt the progress of science.
  • (countable) An act or case of reckless boldness.
  • * 1910 , , "The Blond Beast," Scribner's Magazine , vol. 48 (Sept),
    • Draper, dear lad, had the illusion of an "intellectual sympathy" between them.... Draper's temerities would always be of that kind.
  • (not countable) Effrontery; impudence.
  • * 1820 , , Precaution , ch. 30,
    • He had very nearly been guilty of the temerity of arrogating to himself another title in the presence of those he most respected.

    Synonyms

    * (reckless boldness): audacity, foolhardiness, rashness, recklessness * (effrontery): brashness, cheek, gall, chutzpah

    Related terms

    * temerarious * temerary * temerous

    References

    * * * * * " temerity" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * " temerity" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989) * Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996) * *