DIMENSIONS: DENOTATION / Quality
R E F E R E N C E S
Earnest, Serious/Ernsthaft In a grave and earnest style. [Elson, Louis C. Professor of Theory of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music. Elson's Music Dictionary. Boston: Oliver Ditson Co. MCMV.]
Earnest 1. serious in intention, purpose, or effort; sincerely zealous: an earnest worker. 2. showing depth and sincerity of feeling; earnest words; an earnest entreaty. 3. seriusly important; demanding or receiving serious attention: earnest consideration of measures to be adopted. -n. 4. full seriousness, as of intention or purpose: in earnest. [ME erneste, OE eornoste (sdj); ME ernest, OE earnost (n.); c. D, G ernst] -Syn. 1. fervent. Earnest, Resolute, Serious, Sincere imply having qualities of depth, firmness, and stability. Earnest implies having a purpose and being steadily and soberly eager in pursuing it; an earnest student. Resolute adds somewhat more of a quality of determination; a person who is resolute is very difficult to sway or turn aside from a purpose: resolute in defining the right. Serious implies having depth and a soberness of attitude which contrasts with gaiety and frivolity; it may include the qualities of both earnestness and reoslution; serious and thought ul. Sincere suggests a genuiness, trustworthiness, and absence of deciet or superficiality: a sincere interest in music. 3. purposeful. -Ant. 1. frivolous. [Urdang, Laurence, ed. Random House Dictionary of The English Language. New York: Random House, 1968.]
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