diligence

English

Plate 1 of classical virtues: Diligence. She is holding a whip and spurs, signifying a drive to steadfastly move forward with one's means.

Etymology

(deprecated template usage) [etyl] French diligence

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪlɪdʒəns/
• Hyphenation: di‧li‧gence
• The stage-coach sense may be pronounced as in French.

Noun

diligence (countable and uncountable, plural diligences)

1. Steady application; industry; careful work involving long-term effort.
2. The qualities of a hard worker, including conscientiousness, determination, and perseverance.
3. Carefulness.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   due diligence

4. (historical, 19th century) A public stage-coach.
   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Volume 1, Chapter V:

     Continuing thus, I came at length opposite to the inn at which the various diligences and carriages usually stopped.

   • 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes:

     Being in a civilised country of stage-coaches, I determined to sell my lady friend and be off by the diligence that afternoon.

5. (law, Scotland) The process by which persons, lands, or effects are seized for debt; process for enforcing the attendance of witnesses or the production of writings.

Synonyms

• worksomeness (rare)

Derived terms

• due diligence

Translations

carefulness

• Danish: omhu
• Finnish: huolellisuus (fi)
• German: Sorgfalt (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latvian: gādīgums m
• Russian: рачительность (ru) (račitelʹnostʹ)

qualities of a hard worker, including conscientiousness, determination, perseverance

• Bulgarian: стара́ние (bg) n (staránie), прилежа́ние (bg) n (priležánie)
• Catalan: diligència (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 勤奮／勤奋 (zh) (qínfèn), 勤奋 (zh) (qínfèn), 用功 (zh) (yònggōng)

• Czech: píle f
• Dutch: toewijding (nl) f, vasthoudendheid (nl) f
• Finnish: ahkeruus (fi)
• French: diligence (fr) f
• Galician: dilixencia f
• German: Fleiß (de) m, Eifer (de) m
• Greek: προκοπή (el) f (prokopí)
• Hungarian: szorgalom (hu)
• Japanese: 精励 (せいれい, seirei), 勤勉 (ja) (きんべん, kinben)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 근면 (ko) (geunmyeon), 열심 (ko) (yeolsim)
• Latvian: centība f
• Luxembourgish: Fläiss m
• Norwegian: flid m

  Bokmål: iherdighet m or f

• Portuguese: diligência (pt) f
• Romanian: sârguință (ro) f, diligență (ro) f
• Russian: усе́рдие (ru) n (usérdije), стара́тельность (ru) f (starátelʹnostʹ), прилежа́ние (ru) n (priležánije), стара́ние (ru) n (staránije), трудолю́бие (ru) n (trudoljúbije)
• Spanish: diligencia (es) f, esmero (es) m
• Swedish: ihärdighet (sv) c, flit (sv) c
• Turkish: çalışkanlık (tr), hamaratlık (tr), özen (tr), sebat (tr)
• Welsh: diwydrwydd m

public stage-coach

• Bulgarian: дилижа́нс m (diližáns)
• Dutch: diligence (nl) f, postkoets (nl) f
• Finnish: diligenssi (fi)
• French: diligence (fr) f
• Latvian: diližanss m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: diligence m
• Portuguese: diligência (pt) f
• Romanian: diligență (ro) f, poștalion (ro) n
• Russian: дилижа́нс (ru) m (diližáns)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} revnost (sh), ^{(please verify)} marljivost (sh), ^{(please verify)} priležnost
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} esmero (es) m

Anagrams

• ceilinged

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French diligence.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌdi.liˈʒɑns/, /ˌdi.liˈʒɑn.sə/
• Hyphenation: di‧li‧gen‧ce

Noun

diligence f (plural diligences)

1. (historical) A diligence, a stage-coach.

   Synonym: postkoets

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French

Etymology

diligence

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin diligentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.li.ʒɑ̃s/

Noun

diligence f (countable and uncountable, plural diligences)

1. (uncountable) diligence, conscientiousness
2. (uncountable) haste
3. (countable) stage-coach, diligence

Further reading

• “diligence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.