Be my dictionary. What is the difference between earnest and sincere, solemn and serious?
25 Thursday Mar 2010
Written by Jo Jordan in POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, WELLBEING & POETRY
Tags
anthropology, culture, emotional vocabulary, English, ethnography, positive psychology, psychology
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Speaking properly
I once worked with people who hated other people ~ or so they said. I hated broccoli (I like it now) and I hated doing my tax return.
Sometimes I loathed someone. Or I disliked someone.
Speaking accurately
The nuances of emotional words are interesting. We have poor emotional vocabularies as a general rule.
Understanding nuances
The other day, I dipped into Kate Fox’ Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour.
The nuances of Englishness
Kate Fox suggests the English accept serious but not solemn and sincere but not earnest. I looked up the differences in my COBUILD dictionary that was built from a corpus of actual English usage (Collins Birmingham University International Language Database). It wasn’t very enlightening.
Serious not solemn; sincere not earnest
So I am on the trail to distinguish solemn from serious and earnest from sincere.
Any suggestions?
2 comments
August 26, 2010 at 11:00 am
I did laugh at this, I’ve just reached the humour chapter in watching the English and was also stumped by this subtle difference hence me googling the term. Up until now I’d presumed they meant the same thing, I’m glad I’m not alone on this. Do report back with your findings!
August 26, 2010 at 11:46 am
I still haven’t found out. But thanks Jack!