Recreant vs Caitiff - What's the difference?
recreant | caitiff |
*1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , V.11:
*:For, from the day that he thus did it leave, / Amongst all Knights he blotted was with blame, / And counted but a recreant Knight with endles shame.
*1671 , (John Milton), Paradise Regained , III:
*:Turn'd recreant to God, ingrate and false.
*1793 , (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), :
*:And let the recreant traitors seek / My tourney court […].
Somebody who is recreant. A person who yields in combat, or is cowardly and faint-hearted.
A base or despicable person; a wretch
(obsolete) a captive or prisoner, particularly a galley slave
(archaic) a villain, a coward or wretch
* Late' '''14th''' '''century , Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Knight's Tale", ''The Canterbury Tales
* 1989 , Anthony Burgess, The Devil's Mode
Especially despicable; cowardly
* 1809 , ,
* 1867 , ,
*:: Of Angels, who have not rebellious been,
*:: Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
* 1875 , ,
*:: To work in Mammon’s cave,
*::: Fair Lady?
As a verb recreant
is .As a noun caitiff is
a base or despicable person; a wretch.As an adjective caitiff is
especially despicable; cowardly.recreant
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Derived terms
* recreance * recreancy * recreantlyNoun
(en noun)Synonyms
* apostate * coward * deserter * poltroon * renegade * turncoatAnagrams
* * ----caitiff
English
Noun
(en noun)- For, certes, lord, þer is noon of us alle / Þat she ne haþ been a duchesse or a queene. / Now be we caytyves , as it is wel seene, / Þanked be Fortune and hire false wheel
- ‘There are plenty of Huns who have defected to the Romans, seeking gold and a quiet life. One of my first tasks as paramount chief is to bring those caitiffs back and crucify them.’
Adjective
(en adjective)- Beshrew those caitiff scouts that conspired to sully his honest name by such an imputation!
- Commingled are they with that caitiff choir
- Is Honor gone into his grave?
- Hath Faith become a caitiff knave,
- And Selfhood turned into a slave