Temerity vs Authority - What's the difference?
temerity | authority |
(not countable) Reckless boldness; foolish bravery.
* 1569 , Thomas Pearson, trans., "The Second Paradox," in The booke of Marcus Tullius Cicero entituled Paradoxa Stoicorum , T. Marshe (London),
* 1837 , , The Pickwick Papers , ch. 17,
* 1886 , , The Mayor of Casterbridge , ch. 21
* 1913 , , The Return of Tarzan , ch. 21,
(countable) An act or case of reckless boldness.
* 1910 , , "The Blond Beast," Scribner's Magazine , vol. 48 (Sept),
(not countable) Effrontery; impudence.
* 1820 , , Precaution , ch. 30,
(label) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
* 1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
(label) Persons in command; specifically, government.
*{{quote-book, year=1927, author=
, chapter=4, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
* 1930 September 18, Albert Einstein, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1988) by Banesh Hoffman
In countable terms the difference between temerity and authority
is that temerity is an act or case of reckless boldness while authority is a person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.As nouns the difference between temerity and authority
is that temerity is reckless boldness; foolish bravery while authority is the power to enforce rules or give orders.temerity
English
Noun
- Neyther the spightfull temerity and rashnes of variable fortune, nor the envious hart burning and in iurious hatred of mine enemies shold be able once to damnify me.
- One day when he knew old Lobbs was out, Nathaniel Pipkin had the temerity to kiss his hand to Maria Lobbs.
- Elizabeth trotted through the open door in the dusk, but becoming alarmed at her own temerity , she went quickly out again by another which stood open in the lofty wall of the back court.
- I am surprised that you, sir, a man of letters yourself, should have the temerity so to interrupt the progress of science.
- Draper, dear lad, had the illusion of an "intellectual sympathy" between them.... Draper's temerities would always be of that kind.
- He had very nearly been guilty of the temerity of arrogating to himself another title in the presence of those he most respected.
Synonyms
* (reckless boldness): audacity, foolhardiness, rashness, recklessness * (effrontery): brashness, cheek, gall, chutzpahReferences
* * * * * "temerity" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * "
temerity" 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) * *
authority
English
Alternative forms
* authourity (obsolete)Noun
- But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.
F. E. Penny
Pulling the Strings, passage=The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities . A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.}}
Legal highs: A new prescription, passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
- To punish me for my contempt of authority', Fate has made me an ' authority myself.
