earnest
Meanings
- Gravity; serious purpose; earnestness.
- Seriousness; reality; actuality (as opposed to joking or pretence)
- To be serious with; use in earnest.
- Serious, sincere, ingenuous.
- Focused in the pursuit of an objective; honestly eager to obtain or do.
- Intent; focused; showing a lot of concentration.
- Possessing or characterised by seriousness.
- Strenuous; diligent.
- Serious; weighty; of a serious, weighty, or important nature; important.
- A sum of money paid in advance as a deposit; hence, a pledge, a guarantee, an indication of something to come.
- second-person singular simple present indicative of earn
- A male given name from the Germanic languages, of occasional usage, variant of Ernest.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English ernest, eornest, from Old English eornest, eornost, eornust (“earnestness, zeal, seriousness, battle”), from Proto-Germanic *ernustuz (“earnest, strength, solidity, struggle, fight”), a derivative of Proto-Germanic *arniz (“efficient, capable, diligent, sure”), from Proto-Indo-European *er- (“to cause to move, arouse, increase”). Cognate with West Frisian earnst (“earnest, seriousness”), Dutch ernst (“seriousness, gravity, earnest”), German Ernst (“seriousness, earnestness, zeal, vigour”), Icelandic ern (“brisk, vigorous”), Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌽𐌹𐌱𐌰 (arniba, “secure, certain, sure”). The adjective is from Middle English eornest, from Old English eornoste (“earnest, zealous, serious”), from the noun. Cognate with North Frisian ernste (“earnest”), Middle Low German ernest, ernst (“serious, earnest”), German ernst (“serious, earnest”).