Perspicacity vs Propriety - What's the difference?
perspicacity | propriety |
Acute discernment or understanding; insight.
* 1904 , (Jack London), The Sea-Wolf , ch. 8:
The human faculty or power to mentally grasp or understand clearly.
* 1856 , "Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey," The Quarterly Review , vol. 98, p. 458:
* 1888 , "Review of La suggestion mentale'' by H. Bourru and P. Burot," ''The American Journal of Psychology , vol. 1 no. 3, p. 503:
(obsolete) Keen eyesight.
* 1833 , John Harrison Curtis, A Treatise on the Physiology and Diseases of the Eye , London, Longman, p. 138:
(obsolete) The particular character or essence of someone or something; individuality.
(obsolete) A characteristic; an attribute.
(obsolete) More generally, something owned by someone; a possession.
* 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury :
The fact of possessing something; ownership.
Suitability, fitness; the quality of being appropriate.
* 1773 ,
* 1850 ,
Correctness in behaviour and morals; good manners, seemliness.
* 1811 , (Jane Austen), :
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In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between perspicacity and propriety
is that perspicacity is (obsolete) keen eyesight while propriety is (obsolete) more generally, something owned by someone; a possession.As nouns the difference between perspicacity and propriety
is that perspicacity is acute discernment or understanding; insight while propriety is (obsolete) the particular character or essence of someone or something; individuality.perspicacity
English
Noun
(-)- "I understand," I said. "The fact is that you have the money." His face brightened. He seemed pleased at my perspicacity .
- His very veneration for his father-in-law, combined as it is with a total want of the most ordinary perspicacity , is an additional disqualification.
- As the former consists in the transmission of psychic states inappreciable to the normal perspicacity or senses, the transfer cannot pass through the medium of intelligence.
- Attentive consideration of the phenomena of vision has led to the invention of artificial aids by which the sight may be wonderfully strengthened and preserved, and man endowed at once with the perspicacity of the eagle or the minute scrutiny of the insect.
References
* * * *"perspicacity"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)
propriety
English
Noun
- I was fearful of giving You a very sensible Disgust, in making You'' seem the ''Propriety'' of ''one Man'', when You know Yourself ''ordained'' for the Comfort and Refreshment of ''Multitudes .
- I find such a pleasure, sir, in obeying your commands, that I take care to observe them without ever debating their propriety .
- Now, if we may, with propriety', refer to the people one question, why may we not, with equal ' propriety , refer another?
- Elinor then ventured to doubt the propriety of her receiving such a present from a man so little, or at least so lately known to her.
citation, page= , passage=The neighbor is eventually able to sell her home despite Homer’s pants-less affronts to propriety and decency and Bart falls deeply and instantly for one of its new inhabitants, a tough but charming and funny tomboy girl named Laura (voiced by Sara Gilbert) with just the right combination of toughness and sweetness, granite and honey.}}
References
*"Propriety" at Dictionary.com