sincerity

1 an earnest and sincere feeling [syn: earnestness, seriousness]

2 the quality of being open and truthful; not deceitful or hypocritical; "his sincerity inspired belief"; "they demanded some proof of my sincerity" [ant: insincerity]

3 a quality of naturalness and simplicity; "the simple sincerity of folk songs" [syn: unassumingness]

4 the trait of being serious; "a lack of solemnity is not necessarily a lack of seriousness"- Robert Rice [syn: seriousness, earnestness, serious-mindedness] [ant: frivolity]

English

Etymology

From sincérité.

Noun

1. The quality or state of being sincere; honesty of mind or intention; freedom from simulation, hypocrisy, disguise, or false pretense.
   • William Shakespeare:

     I protest, in the sincerity of love.

   • Knox:

     Sincerity is a duty no less plain than important.

Synonyms

• honesty
• sincereness

Antonyms

• insincerity

Related terms

• sincere

Translations

• Cebuano: sinceridad
• Czech: upřímnost
• Dutch: oprechtheid
• French: sincérité
• Malayalam: ആത്മാര്‍ത്ഥത (aathmaarthatha)

References

Sincerity is the virtue of speaking truly about one's feelings, thoughts, desires. Sincere expression carries risks to the speaker, since the ordinary screens used in everyday life are opened to the outside world. At the same time, we expect our friends, our lovers, our leaders "to be sincere".

Sincerity in Western societies

Sincerity has not been consistently regarded as a virtue in Western culture. First discussed by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, it resurfaced to become an ideal (virtue) in Europe and North America in the 17th century; and it gained considerable momentum during the Romantic movement, when sincerity was first celebrated as an artistic and social ideal. Indeed, in mid- to late-nineteenth century America, sincerity was an idea reflected in mannerisms, hairstyles, women's dress, and the literature of the time.

More recently, sincerity has been under assault by several modern developments such as psychoanalysis and postmodern developments such as deconstruction. Some scholars view sincerity as a construct rather than a moral virtue—although any virtue can be construed as a 'mere construct' rather than an actual phenomenon.

Literary critic Lionel Trilling dealt with the subject of sincerity, its roots, its evolution, its moral quotient, and its relationship to authenticity in a series of lectures published under the title Sincerity and Authenticity.

Aristotle's Views on Sincerity

According to Aristotle "truthfulness or sincerity is a desirable mean state between the deficiency of irony or self-deprecation and the excess of boastfulness."

Sincerity in Confucian societies

Beyond the Western culture, sincerity is notably developed as a virtue in Confucian societies (China, Korea, and Japan). The concept of chéng (誠) as expounded in two of the Confucian classics, the Da Xue and the Zhong Yong is generally translated as sincerity. As in the west, the term implies a congruence of avowal and inner feeling, but inner feeling is in turn ideally responsive to ritual propriety and social hierarchy. Thus, even today, a powerful leader will praise leaders of other realms as "sincere" to the extent that they know their place. In Japanese the character for cheng may be pronounced makoto, and carries still more strongly the sense of loyal avowal and belief.

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary and most scholars state that sincerity from sincere is derived from the Latin sincerus meaning clean, pure, sound (1525–35). Sincerus may have once meant "one growth" (not mixed), from sin- (one) and crescere (to grow). Crescere derives from "Ceres," the goddess of grain, as in "cereal."

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the Latin word sincerus is derived from the Indo-European root *sm̥kēros, itself derived from the zero-grade of *sem (one) and the suffixed, lengthened e-grade of *ker (grow), generating the underlying meaning of one growth, hence pure, clean.

Controversy

An often repeated folk etymology proposes that sincere is derived from the Latin sine = without, cera = wax. According to one popular explanation, dishonest sculptors in Rome or Greece would cover flaws in their work with wax to deceive the viewer; therefore, a sculpture "without wax" would mean honesty in its perfection.

The Oxford English Dictionary states, however, that "There is no probability in the old explanation from sine cera 'without wax'". Also note the entry on sincere in An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by Walter William Skeat (p.555) and Storied Words: The Writer's Vocabulary and Its Origins By Jeff Jeske (p.145). The without wax etymology is popular enough to be a minor subplot in Dan Brown's Digital Fortress, though Brown attributes it to the Spanish language, not Latin.

References

See also

• Congruence
• Honesty
• A 1912 novel by Warwick Deeping is also called Sincerity.

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