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Silly vs Eccentric - What's the difference?

silly | eccentric |

As adjectives the difference between silly and eccentric

is that silly is (label) pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless while eccentric is not at or in the centre; away from the centre.

As nouns the difference between silly and eccentric

is that silly is (colloquial) a silly person; a fool while eccentric is one who does not behave like others.

silly

English

Adjective

(er)
  • (label) Pitiable; deserving of compassion; helpless.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:
  • A silly man, in simple weedes forworne, / And soild with dust of the long dried way; / His sandales were with toilesome trauell torne, / And face all tand with scorching sunny ray
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • After long storms with which my silly bark was tossed sore.
  • * (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)
  • The silly buckets on the deck.
  • (label) Simple, unsophisticated, ordinary; rustic, ignorant.
  • * 1633 , (John Donne), "Sapho to Philænis":
  • For, if we justly call each silly man'' / A ''little island , What shall we call thee than?
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • A fourth man, in a silly habit.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • All that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.
  • Foolish, showing a lack of good sense and wisdom; frivolous, trifling.
  • Irresponsible, showing irresponsible behaviors.
  • Semiconscious, witless.
  • (label) Of a fielding position, very close to the batsman; closer than short.
  • Simple, not intelligent, unrefined.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=“Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke
  • (label) Happy; fortunate; blessed.
  • (Chaucer)
  • (label) Harmless; innocent; inoffensive.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • The silly virgin strove him to withstand.
  • * Robynson (More's Utopia)
  • A silly , innocent hare murdered of a dog.

    Derived terms

    * sillily (adverb) * silly season

    Antonyms

    * ("playful"): pious

    Synonyms

    * ("playful"): charming

    Noun

    (sillies)
  • (colloquial) A silly person; a fool.
  • (colloquial) A mistake.
  • Anagrams

    * * * 1000 English basic words

    eccentric

    English

    Alternative forms

    * eccentrick (obsolete) * excentric * excentrick (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not at or in the centre; away from the centre.
  • * 2011 , Michael Laver, Ernest Sergenti. Party Competition: An Agent-Based Model , page 125,
  • Strikingly, we see that party births tend systematically to be at policy positions that are significantly more eccentric than those of surviving parties, whatever decision rule these parties use.
  • Not perfectly circular; elliptical.
  • As of 2008, Margaret had the most eccentric orbit of any moon in the solar system, though Nereid's mean eccentricity is greater.
  • Having a different center; not concentric.
  • (of a person) deviating from the norm; behaving unexpectedly or differently.
  • * 1801', Author not named, ''Fyfield (John)'', entry in '''''Eccentric Biography; Or, Sketches of Remarkable Characters, Ancient and Modern , page 127,
  • He was a man of a most eccentric turn of mind, and great singularity of conduct.
  • * 1807', G. H. Wilson (editor), ''The '''Eccentric Mirror , Volume 3, page 17,
  • Such is not the case with Mr. Martin Van Butchell, one of the most eccentric characters to be found in the British metropolis, and a gentleman of indisputable science and abilities, but whose strange humors and extraordinary habits, have rather tended to obscure than to display the talents he possessed.
  • * 1956 , , The City and the Stars , 2012, unnumbered page,
  • Khedron was the only other person in the city who could be called eccentric —and even his eccentricity had been planned by the designers of Diaspar.
  • (physiology, of a motion) Against or in the opposite direction of contraction of a muscle (e.g., such as results from flexion of the lower arm (bending of the elbow joint) by an external force while contracting the triceps and other elbow extensor muscles to control that movement; opening of the jaw while flexing the masseter).
  • Having different goals or motives.
  • * , 1867 , Richard Whately (analysis and notes), James R. Boyd (editor), Essay XI: Wisdom for a Man's Self'', ''Lord Bacon's Essays , page 171,
  • .

    Usage notes

    * . See also (Isometric exercise)

    Synonyms

    * (not at or in the centre) eccentrical, excentrical * (not perfectly circular) eccentrical, excentrical * (having a different centre) eccentrical, excentrical * (deviating from the norm) eccentrical, excentrical, odd, abnormal * (against the contraction of a muscle) * (having different goals or motives) eccentrical, excentrical

    Antonyms

    * (against the contraction of a muscle) concentric

    Derived terms

    * eccentrically

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who does not behave like others.
  • * 1998 , Michael Gross, Life On The Edge , 2001, page ix,
  • Eccentrics live longer, happier, and healthier lives than conformist normal citizens, according to the neuropsychologist David Weeks.
  • A disk or wheel with its axis off centre, giving a reciprocating motion.
  • * 1840 , Dionysius Lardner, The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated , page 379,
  • The position of the eccentrics' which is necessary to make the pistons drive the engine forward must be directly the reverse of that which would cause them to drive the engine backwards. To be able, therefore, to reverse the motion of the engine, it would only be necessary to be able to reverse the position of the ' eccentrics , which may be accomplished by either of two expedients.
  • * 1994 , James M. Lattis, Between Copernicus and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic Cosmology , page 116,
  • Clavius goes on to use the large number of orbs in Fracostoro's theory as another reason to prefer the Ptolemaic system, then couples this issue with that of the relative capacity of the theories to save the phenomena, then finally reiterates the lack (as he sees it) of conflict between the Aristotelian natural philosophy and the eccentrics and epicycles of mathematical astronomy.
  • * 2007 , George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance , page 120,
  • The discussion that revolved around the admissibility of eccentrics' and epicycles lied(sic) at the core of this theoretical discussion, and those who would not allow such concepts took the position that such ' eccentrics and epicycles would then introduce a center of heaviness, other than the Earth, around which celestial simple objects would then move.
  • (slang) A kook.
  • See also

    * acentric