diffidence

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin diffīdentia (“lack of confidence, distrust”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which in post-classical Latin, in the Vulgate, also meant lack of religious faith.^[2] The Latin noun is from diffīdēns, present participle of diffīdō (“to mistrust”),^[2][6] formed from dis- (“away”) and fīdō (“to trust”),^[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *bheidh- (“to trust, confide, persuade”).^[3] The OED compares Middle French diffidence, from the late 14th century but rare before the 16th, and Italian diffidenza, from before 1306;^[2] the Shorter Oxford allows either French or Latin as the source.^[8] Johnson derived the noun from diffide.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lack of faith, distrust: before 1425, in the Northern Pauline Epistles, in a text composed before 1400, at Ephesians 2:2: Þe childre of dyffydence, rendering Latin diffidentiae.^[2][4] Barnhart says before 1400,^[6] Etymonline about 1400,^[3] and Dictionary.com 1350–1400.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant distrust of others or of God, as in Lydgate, whose angel pulls a man's arm out of joint for his diffidence.^[4] The modern sense, doubt of one's own ability and the shyness that goes with it, is recorded by the OED from 1557;^[2] the Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 17th century and Etymonline to the 1650s.^[8][3] Barnhart dates the matching sense of diffident to Addison's Cato in 1713.^[7] Johnson (1755) still glossed the noun "distrust; want of confidence; timidity" and quoted Bacon's general diffidence among fearful subjects beside Pope's line about speaking with seeming diffidence.^[9] The older sense is now rare or archaic,^[2][8][11] and the Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, counted diffidence as a defect, an undue distrust of self.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1425 – lack of confidence or faith in someone or something; distrust.^[2][4]
• 1557 – doubt in one's own ability; lack of self-confidence, shyness.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of confidence in oneself; modesty or shyness: She offered her opinion with some diffidence.^{[11][12][2][13]}
2. (archaic) Distrust of others; doubt about someone's power or intentions.^[11][2][8]

Related words

• diffident
• diffide
• confidence
• fidelity
• bide

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ The World Book Dictionary (2015), Chicago: World Book