Word
ernest
Phoneticsernest
/ˈɝnəst/
Definitions
01male given name
n. a traditional first name for a man.
n. a masculine given name, notably associated with the Victorian era and literary figures.
“Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous American writers of the last century.”
“The protagonist in Oscar Wilde's famous play discovers the social advantages of being named Ernest while leading a double life.”
Pitfall
He is a very ernest person.
He is a very earnest person.
Use the lowercase 'earnest' for the adjective meaning serious; 'Ernest' with a capital E is only used as a name.
02surname
n. a family name or last name.
n. a surname of Germanic origin, often found in English-speaking and German-speaking countries.
“The local library was named after the Ernest family who donated the land.”
“Genealogical records indicate that the Ernest lineage in this region dates back to the early eighteenth-century migrations.”
Etymology
Borrowed in the 18th century from Ernst, a medieval royal name in Germany, from Old High German ernust (“vigor, strife”), only remotely related to modern German ernst or English earnest.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/ernest