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Diffidence is the feeling of not quite trusting yourself, so you keep small and do not want people to look at you or talk about you. A student with diffidence may know the answer and still stay quiet. It is a formal, slightly old-fashioned noun. In the hallway, people are more likely to say shyness, or “she hates attention.” It is not pride, and it is not . The person is not saying “I am better than you”; they are saying, inside, “I might not be enough.” Though actually, the word did not always mean shy. It comes from Latin for “not trusting,” and for a long time it was the opposite of confidence in a broader way: you did not trust a person or a thing. From the 1650s it turned inward — you do not trust yourself — and that is the meaning students meet now.
羞怯、不自信（較書面；口語多說害羞、不敢出風頭。現在不是「不信任別人」，而是不太信任自己。）
組成From Latin diffīdentia “distrust,” from diffīdere “to mistrust,” from dis- “not / away” + fīdere “to trust.” In English since about 1400. The first sense was “not trusting”; the modern “not trusting yourself / not wanting to be noticed” sense dates from the 1650s.
同家族的字
- diffidentthe adjective: a diffident person shows diffidence
- confidencefrom the same Latin “trust” root, with the opposite kind of prefix
- confidentthe opposite mood: sure of yourself
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
diffidencenoun/ˈdɪfɪdəns/
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The state of being diffident, timid or shy; reticence or self-effacement.
- Without scruple—without apology—without much apparent diffidence, Mr. Elton, the lover of Harriet, was professing himself her lover.
- My father was in the meantime overjoyed and in the bustle of preparation only recognized in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a bride.
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obsoleteMistrust, distrust, lack of confidence in someone or something.
- [Charles, King of France]: We have been guided by thee hitherto, And of thy cunning had no diffidence: One sudden foil shall never breed distrust.
- [...] [H]ee had brought the Parliment into ſo juſt a diffidence of him, as that they durſt not leave the Public Armes to his diſpoſal [...]
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。