Equanimity Mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, esp. in a difficult situation. So how do I apply this word in a sentence? "Despite Roger being interrogated by the police, he remained equanimity the whole time." Is that right? Doesn't sound correct..
Because there are very few circumstances in writing where usage of such a word will be appropriate. Remember ChickenFreak's wonderful example of wearing a tux to a beach party? But yeah, aside from that, sounds like you understand the meaning of the word.
It sounds like a noun. So instead of "he remained" (which would be an adjective, like "calm") I'd go with "he kept," or "he still had."
This is the thing. Why do they make these stupid fucking synonym's that are so confusing and complicated? Equanimity and Composure are synonymous so why bother creating something like 'Equanimity'.. Utter rubbish.
Why do both Coke and Pepsi exist? Why do both beige and brown exist? Why do butter and margarine _and_ lard all exist? They all exist because no one is in charge of ensuring that humanity has one and only one option for any given purpose. When words were being added to the language, there was no master committee to decide which ones would be permitted: "Sir, there's an application from the Latin medievalists for the word 'equanimity'. You'll see the application and definition in your agenda." "Nope, it's too similar to the word 'composure'. Application denied." "Sir, there's a population of several thousand people that have been using this word for a several centuries." "I see. Well, shoot 'em all." "Sir?!" "If you want to make an omelet, you've got to break some eggs." Words happen. Language is formed. There is no plan. The French may use one word, the Germans another, the Italians another, they all enter the English language. And usually, though not always, the different words have different subtle tones of meanings, different flavors. You may be annoyed that Coke and Pepsi and RC Cola and Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb all exist and all have more or less the same function; I enjoy the variety. On the usage question, equanimity is a noun, not an adjective, so your example should be changed to something like: "Despite Roger being interrogated by the police, he maintained his equanimity the whole time." Or, really, I'd probably change it to: "Roger maintained his equanimity throughout the interrogation." Edited to add: And if the existence of these words annoys you so much, _why study them_? Why do you so doggedly pursue something that makes you upset? Why not write using the language that you already have? ChickenFreak
^ That reminds me of "1984"...."ungood," or if that word is somehow not strong enough, then you've got the fine alternative of "doubleungood."
Should be, "Despite Roger being interrogated by the police, he remained equanimous the whole time." Equanimity is the noun, and equanimous is the adjective.
It does sound like a noun. However, the problem does not lie in 'equanimity'. It lies in 'remained'. Change that 'm' to a 't'. He retained equanimity. Watch that foul mouth. That was unnecessary. Language is both our tool and our material, so you should treat it well if you wish to use it. Truth is: equanimity and composure are not synonyms. Composure has to do with control. You can be angry and yet remain composed. Equanimity has to do with moderation. It involves remaining both composed and calm at the same time, especially while stressed. As for why they "make" these synonyms: a) they "make" them because it's easier to say that someone retained equanimity than saying they were calm and composed. Sometimes you need a more formal word, and b) they "make" them because it is in the nature of humanity to do so; to name things, to define, to defile.
•equanimity in the face of the passing of time, love and life. It's clearly a noun. This we know. Would be as difficult to use as, 'aplomb' or 'ataraxia' which mean the same. Being a simple type I would skip the word and use something else, unless of course you are targeting an audience that might use it as a norm? Clever folk and all that. The word is almost religious or ecclesiastical in feel. Good for a thinking exercise.
Ah, the English language. How many it breaks, sorting the men from the mice... Few stand triumphant upon a heap of words and can proclaim, "I have defeated this language and it pays homage to me now! No more will I bow and scrape to its cruel whims!"
As stated above, there's no need to swear on these boards. Not that I've discovered yet, anyway! If synonyms get you down so much, maybe you should target your writing at folks of a lower age? I mean, write books for 4 year-olds and you won't NEED many words. Write for/to adults, and you really should be trying to stimulate them with your writing skills (which includes a vocabulary element). Do you like writing, then? If so, what's the age of your preferred target audience??? Personally, myself, I'm an adult and prefer to write for adults. I would have few problems "dumbing something down" to write for the young, it's just something that doesn't appeal to me (that much).
For what it's worth, I've checked those words against a corpus of about 3 million words of written English (the BNC:OU written corpus). "Equanimity" occurs 6 times, so that's 2 times per million words. "Aplomb" occurs twice, which is about 0.7 per million words. "Ataraxia" doesn't occur at all. Apropos of nothing, but I thought it interesting. I'm easily amused. For comparison, "Cloudless" occurs 4 times, so it's less common than "equanimity" but more common than "aplomb" and "ataraxia".
I can see what you mean - YA involves writing in a voice that young people can relate to - and it's not for everyone. But writing for kids shouldn't involve dumbing anything down. Kids are much smarter than we usually give them credit for. They can sense when they're being patronized to, and they hate it.
I have now read the word equanimity so many times it's lost all meaning to me. It's now a non-word! Problem solved.
Islander is right, equanimous is the correct conjugation of equanimity in this case. But that has nothing to do with the meaning of the word, just the conjugation: equanimity is a noun. Saying "he remained equanimity" is the same (grammatically) as saying "the airplane remained sky," and is incorrect (unless the airplane is actually composed of sky, or the man in your sentence encompasses all equanimity).
"what do you think of the colour of our new aircraft its sky blue" "Its horrible" "It will cost £2 million to repaint" "leave it as it is" the airplane remained sky
That. MG's original sentence now stands to me like a work of art. The man's not only equanimous -- that's for sissies -- he is equanimity embodied. On par with Chuck Norris.
