English vocabulary question

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Jar-Ptitsa
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:00 pm

reineke wrote:An anti-braggart, self-effacer, self-doubter.


Thanks fox :)

but you can be the opposite of a show off, without a lot of self-doubt I think. I looked up braggart, and it has millions of synonyms but only 1 antonym which is humble.
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:10 pm

Xmmm wrote:I think the kind of nouns you're looking for are almost always created as aspersions. Braggart, wastrel, spendthrift, blowhard, cad, lech, loafer, moocher, miser, gossip, fop.

So, I can think of nouns for "humble person" with negative connotations: mouse, doormat, milquetoast. But I can't think of any positive ones.


Yes, this was the difficulty I had when I searched: the words are always negative, but personally I like the people who are not a show-off.
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:13 pm

Speakeasy wrote:I believe that the noun/adjective pair that you're looking for is humility/humble.

Humility is the state of being humble or free from pride or arrogance.

A range of synonyms for the noun humility suggested by the Webster's dictionary include: humbleness, modesty, meekness, diffidence, unassertiveness, servility, submissiveness. However, in my view these are not necessarily interchangeable: I would never replace modesty by servility.


thank you for your reply.

I know the word humility, and if your definition can be for a person, then it would be the word that I mean. so, one person is a show-off, but the other person is a _______(opposite of show-off)
Last edited by Jar-Ptitsa on Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:15 pm

Xmmm wrote:OP wants a concrete noun meaning the opposite of "a show-off". If it doesn't exist, maybe we should make it up and see if it goes viral.

Possibilities:

humilicant (fake derivation from Latin)
humilidor (fake derivation from Spanish, or maybe again from Latin I don't know)
crevasse (as in, crevasses are deep and quiet and so is this guy)

I'm sure others can come up with better neologisms ... please get to work and remember when you're done I get the credit. :)


Yes, exactly :D
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:18 pm

zenmonkey wrote:A supplicant.
Apparently not used enough to be current coin and with too many other meanings.

How about a modest mouse. A bit slangish.


But it sounds negative. It would be great to have a nice word as a compliment. It's so nice when a person is very intelligent, very handsome, very fit, but not a show-off, more humble.
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:19 pm

Tillumadoguenirurm wrote:Unassuming.


thanks for your reply, but it's an adjective I think. :)
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:20 pm

vogeltje wrote:
Tillumadoguenirurm wrote:Unassuming.


thanks for your reply, but it's an adjective I think. :)

Sorry, for some reason I didn't see that you wanted a noun.
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Re: English vocabulary question

Postby lavengro » Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:12 pm

Interesting, there does not appear to be a precise antonym noun - "introvert" is the closest I can come up with, but it is far from an exact match.

I am in favour of starting a petition to have Xmmm's "humilicant" officially recognized as an English word, or perhaps we can all agree to pepper that construction into conversations enough over the next few months to descriptively qualify it as proper English.
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