zealous

English

WOTD – 9 September 2011

Alternative forms

• zelous

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”), from ζηλόω (zēlóō, “to emulate, to be jealous”). Doublet of jealous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɛl.əs/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (AU):

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• Rhymes: -ɛləs
• Hyphenation: zeal‧ous

Adjective

zealous (comparative more zealous, superlative most zealous)

1. Full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.
   • 1791, James Boswell, The life of Samuel Johnson, new ed. (1831) by John Wilson Croker, volume 1, page 238:

     Johnson was truly zealous for the success of "The Adventurer;" and very soon after his engaging in it, he wrote the following letter:

   • 1896, Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (2004 edition), page 122:

     Doubtless many will exclaim against the Roman Catholic Church for this; but the simple truth is that Protestantism was no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine.

   • 1940, Foster Rhea Dulles, America Learns to Play: A history of popular recreation, 1607-1940, page 61:

     […] and there were few more zealous dancers at the fashionable balls in the Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg.

   • 2011 April 4, "Newt Gingrich," Time (retrieved 9 Sept 2013):

     Newt Gingrich . . . left Congress in 1998, following GOP midterm-election losses that many blamed on his zealous pursuit of Bill Clinton's impeachment.

Synonyms

• (full of zeal): ardent, eager, enthusiastic, fervent, passionate, zealotic

Antonyms

• (full of zeal): apathetic, dispassionate, indifferent, unenthusiastic

Derived terms

Terms derived from zealous

• overzealous

• zealously

• zealousness

Related terms

Terms etymologically related to zealous

• jealous
• zeal

• zealot
• zealotic

• zealotical
• zealotry

Translations

full of zeal; ardent

• Arabic: مُتَحَمِّس (mutaḥammis), حَمَاسِيّ (ar) (ḥamāsiyy)
• Armenian: եռանդուն (hy) (eṙandun), փութաջան (hy) (pʻutʻaǰan)
• Bulgarian: ревностен (bg) (revnosten), усърден (bg) (usǎrden)
• Cherokee: ᎤᏚᎩᎠᏓᏕᎵᏎᏗ (udugiadadelisedi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 熱心／热心 (zh) (rèxīn), 热心 (zh) (rèxīn)

• Cornish: diwysyk
• Czech: horlivý (cs)
• Danish: ivrig, entusiastisk
• Dutch: ijverig (nl), vlijtig (nl)
• Estonian: agar (et), innukas
• Finnish: intohimoinen (fi)
• French: zélé (fr)
• Galician: celoso
• Georgian: გულმოდგინე (ka) (gulmodgine), გულანთებული (gulantebuli)
• German: eifrig (de), begeistert (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: πρόθυμος (próthumos)

• Hungarian: buzgó (hu)
• Ido: zelanta, zeloza (io)
• Interlingua: zelose
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: zelante (it)
• Japanese: 熱心な (ja) (ねっしんな, nesshin-na)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani:

• Latin: studiōsus (la), ardēns, ācer (la)
• Lithuanian: pavydus
• Maori: ngākaunui, whiwhita, whitawhita, ngangahau
• Norwegian: engasjert (no), ivrig, nidkjær (no), flittig
• Polish: zagorzały (pl), żarliwy (pl), zapamiętały
• Portuguese: zeloso (pt)
• Russian: рья́ный (ru) (rʹjányj), усе́рдный (ru) (usérdnyj), ре́вностный (ru) (révnostnyj)
• Scots: guidwillt
• Scottish Gaelic: dian, dealasach
• Serbo-Croatian: gorljiv (sh)
• Spanish: celoso (es), ferviente (es)
• Swedish: ivrig (sv), hänförd (sv), entusiastisk (sv), nitisk (sv), hängiven (sv)
• Tagalog: salurapa (salurapa)
• Thai: กระตือรือร้น (th) (grà-dtʉʉ-rʉʉ-rón)
• Welsh: selog (cy)