Zealous vs Overzealousness - What's the difference?
zealous | overzealousness |
Full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.
* 1791 , , volume 1, page 238:
* 1896 , , A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (2004 edition), page 122:
* 1940 , Foster Rhea Dulles, America Learns to Play: A history of popular recreation, 1607-1940 , page 61:
* 2011 April 4, "
The quality of being too zealous
*{{quote-news, 2009, January 8, Nicholas D. Kristof, The Gaza Boomerang, New York Times
, passage=Many Gazans scorn Fatah as corrupt and incompetent, and they dislike Hamas's overzealousness and repression. }}
As an adjective zealous
is full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.As a noun overzealousness is
the quality of being too zealous.zealous
English
Alternative forms
* zelousAdjective
(en adjective)- Johnson was truly zealous for the success of "The Adventurer;" and very soon after his engaging in it, he wrote the following letter:
- Doubtless many will exclaim against the Roman Catholic Church for this; but the simple truth is that Protestantism was no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine.
- and there were few more zealous dancers at the fashionable balls in the Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg.
Newt Gingrich," Time (retrieved 9 Sept 2013):
- Newt Gingrich . . . left Congress in 1998, following GOP midterm-election losses that many blamed on his zealous pursuit of Bill Clinton's impeachment.
Synonyms
* (full of zeal) ardent, eager, enthusiastic, fervent, passionate, zealoticAntonyms
* (full of zeal) apathetic, dispassionate, indifferent, unenthusiasticDerived terms
* overzealous * zealously * zealousnessoverzealousness
English
Noun
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