Proper vs Plain - What's the difference?

proper | plain | Related terms |

Proper is a related term of plain.

As adjectives the difference between proper and plain

is that proper is (lb) suitable while plain is .

As adverbs the difference between proper and plain

is that proper is (scotland) properly; thoroughly; completely while plain is (colloquial) simply.

As a noun plain is

(rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief.

As a verb plain is

to lament, bewail or plain can be (obsolete|transitive) to plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.

proper

English

(wikipedia proper)

Alternative forms

* propre (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)

(lb) Suitable.

#Suited or acceptable to the purpose or circumstances; fit, suitable.

#*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

#*:The proper study of mankind is man.

#*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.}}

#Following the established standards of behavior or manners; correct or decorous.

#*:This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.

(lb) Possessed, related.

#(lb) Used to designate a particular person, place, or thing. Proper words are usually written with an initial capital letter.

#Pertaining exclusively to a specific thing or person; particular.

#*, II.1.3:

#*:They have a proper saint almost for every peculiar infirmity: for poison, gouts, agues.

#*(Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)

#*:those high and peculiar attributeswhich constitute our proper humanity

#(lb) Belonging to oneself or itself; own.

#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

#*:my proper son

#*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

#*:Now learn the difference, at your proper cost, / Betwixt true valour and an empty boast.

#*, II.4.1.ii:

#*:every country, and more than that, every private place, hath his proper remedies growing in it, particular almost to the domineering and most frequent maladies of it.

#*1946 , (Bertrand Russell), (A History of Western Philosophy) , I.20:

#*:Each animal has its proper' pleasure, and the ' proper pleasure of man is connected with reason.

#(lb) Portrayed in natural or usual coloration, as opposed to conventional tinctures.

(lb) Accurate, strictly applied.

#Excellent, of high quality; such as the specific person or thing should ideally be. (Now often merged with later senses.)

#*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) VII:

#*:The same tyme was Moses borne, and was a propper childe in the sight of God, which was norisshed up in his fathers housse thre monethes.

#In the very strictest sense of the word (now often as postmodifier).

#*, Episode 16:

#*:Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their head in some secluded spot outside the city proper .

Synonyms

* correct, right, apt, prudent, sensible, fitting * appropriate, decent, good, polite, right, well-mannered * appropriate, just, honorable * comprehensive, royal, sweeping, intensive * (true) full, complete * complete, right (informal), total, utter

Antonyms

* incorrect, wrong, bad, imprudent, insensible * inappropriate, indecent, bad, impolite, wrong, ill-mannered, unseemly * inappropriate, unjust, dishonorable * partial, incomplete, superficial, slapdash * (true) incomplete

Adverb

(-)

(Scotland) properly; thoroughly; completely

* 1964 , Saint Andrew Society (Glasgow, Scotland), The Scots magazine: Volume 82

Don't you think you must have looked proper daft?

(nonstandard, slang) properly

* 2012 , (Soufside), Hello (song)

When I meet a bad chick, know I gotta tell her hello

talk real proper , but she straight up out the ghetto

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* 1000 English basic words English adjectives commonly used as postmodifiers ----

plain

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)

* Bible, (w) xl. 4

The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .

Simple.

# Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.

#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}

# Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.

# Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.

#* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)

plain yet pious Christians

#* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)

the plain people

# (label) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.

# (label) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).

Obvious.

# Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.

#* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional

In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.

# Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).

Open.

# Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

an honest mind, and plain

# Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.

#* Felton

Our troops beat an army in plain fight.

Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.

Synonyms

* no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See also

Antonyms

* bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornate

Derived terms

* plain and simple * plain as a pikestaff * plain as the nose on one's face * plain chocolate * plain clothes * plain-dealing * plain film * plain flour * plain-hearted * plain Jane * plain-laid * plain line * plain paper * plain sailing * plain song/plainsong * plain-spoken * plain text * plain-vanilla * plain weave * plain-winged * plainly * plainness

Adverb

(-)

(colloquial) Simply

It was just plain stupid.

I plain forgot.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) plainer, pleiner, variant of (etyl) and (etyl) pleindre, plaindre, from (etyl) plangere, present active infinitive of .

Alternative forms

* plein

Noun

(en noun)

(rare, poetic) A lamentation.

* 1815 , Sir , The Lady of the Isles , Canto IV, part IX

The warrior-threat, the infant's plain ,

The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

Verb

(en verb)

To lament, bewail.

to plain a loss

* Bishop Joseph Hall

Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set / Her husband's rusty iron corselet; / Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, / That never plain' d of his uneasy nest.

* , More Poems , XXV, lines 5-9

Then came I crying, and to-day,

With heavier cause to plain ,

Depart I into death away,

Not to be born again.

Etymology 3

From (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .

Noun

(wikipedia plain) (en noun)

An expanse of land with relatively low relief.

* Milton

Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain .

* 1961 , J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the ''Sophistês'' of Plato . In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.

For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains , in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”

A battlefield.

(Arbuthnot)

* Shakespeare

Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .

(obsolete) A .

Synonyms

* flatlands * high plain * plateau * prairie * steppe

Antonyms

* cliff * gorge * mountain * vale

Derived terms

* abyssal plain * alluvial plain * flood plain/floodplain * gibber plain * Great Plains * peneplain * Plains * plain wanderer * salt plain * the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.

* Wither

We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.

(obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.

* Shakespeare

What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.

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* English degree adverbs ----