Make Your Point > Archived Issues > CANDOR
Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.
pronounce
CANDOR:
Say it "CAN der."
It rhymes with "dander," "gander," and "pander."
To hear it, click here.
If the spelling of "candor" is tempting you into saying the last syllable like "door," like we do with "corridor," "Labrador," and "matador," then try reading this list aloud: "odor, splendor, vendor, candor."
connect this word to others:
Be candid. Which do you truly prefer: metaphors ("love is a rose"), or similes ("love is like a rose")? Perhaps you don't give a hoot for either? Thanks, I appreciate your candor.
In The Philosophy of Style, Herbert Spencer argues that metaphors trump similes: that they're more clear, more compact, and more gratifying for the reader. He gives an example of a nice, clear, compact, gratifying metaphor:
"The white light of truth, in traversing the many sided transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris hued poetry."
That's much better, he points out, than rambling your way through the idea with a simile, beating your reader over the head with it:
"As, in passing through the crystal, beams of white light are decomposed into the colors of the rainbow; so, in traversing the soul of the poet, the colorless rays of truth are transformed into brightly tined poetry." Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I bring all this up for a few reasons. One, it's hilarious when you see quotes pulled completely out of context and plastered on posters and such.
And two, I really do love the metaphor of "the white light of truth." So did Virginia Woolf, who said that books are worthless if they're "written in the red light of emotion and not in the white light of truth." So did the ancient Romans, maybe. Their word for "openness," candor, comes from candere, "to shine, to be white, or to be on fire."
Candere gave us words like candle; candidate (which originally meant "white-robed," as in "ancient Roman office-seeker in a toga"); __cense ("to make people so angry that it's like they're on fire"); and __cand___ent ("hot and glowing, or brightly excited").
And, candere gave us the words we're checking out today: candid ("open and frank") and candor ("open frankness").
If someone accuses you of being overly candid, just say you're shining the white light of truth.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "candor" comes straight from Latin, where it means "purity" or "openness," among other things (like "snow," "whiteness," "heat," and "beauty").
In English, "candor" first meant "brightness, whiteness, purity." Then, it grew to mean "justice, fairness of mind."
And since about 1769, "candor" has most often meant "truth in expressing your thoughts." In other words, candor is honesty: the kind that's open, frank, straightforward, and outspoken. If you're being candid, you're saying exactly what you think and feel, without holding anything back.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech: noun, the uncountable kind: "I admire her candor," "we ask for your candor."
Other forms: Candid, candidly.
If you prefer the noun "candidness" to "candor," that's fine, too. It's just less common.
And outside the US, "candor" is "candour," spelled like "colour," "flavour" and so on.
how to use it:
First, let's clarify: although candor is often good thing, it can also seem immature ("Ew, too much information") or tactless ("Ugh, if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything").
Either way, talk about someone's candor, or about the candor of someone's statement, or about someone doing or saying something with candor.
Or, talk generally about candor: "we value candor here," "she seems to lack candor."
Candor usually shows up in people's words. But because candor is simply the absence of holding things back, it can also show up in people's choices, actions, and artistic creations. Here's the New York Times: "[The film] is studded with moments like this — candor and dark humor."
Even a photograph can show candor, which explains why "candid" photography is the kind that shows people actually living their lives, doing real things, rather than standing around posing for the camera.
examples:
"I hate banking...A desk and a ledger--Oh, I hate them! I would like to live out of doors.' He pointed to the country about them, the stream, the sylvan path they were treading, the wood beside them, with its depths gilded here and there by a ray of the sun. 'I want'--in a burst of candor--'to live my own life! To be able to follow my own bent and make the most of myself.'"
— Stanley J. Weyman, Ovington's Bank, 1922
"The central technique of germ-hunting has been a labor-intensive process called contact tracing. It starts with a search for the person or people who were the first to be infected. Then the search expands to the people those initial patients interacted with, then the ones they interacted with, and so on... [it's] an imperfect process that relies on peoples' memories, their candor, and an absence of chance encounters with strangers."
— Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, 22 February 2020
has this page helped you understand "candor"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "candor" without saying "frankness" or "outspokenness."
try it out:
At work, in relationships, and among friends, we all walk that line between tact and candor. If you're tactful, you hold things back, for the sake of politeness and social harmony. If you're candid, you don't.
Which is more important to you: tact, or candor? Which would you rather be known for? Why?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
This month, our game is called "Fix the Grand Spell which was Cast by Short Words."
(Or, in monstrously inflated terms, the game is called "Rewrite the Extraordinary Incantation which was Executed by Monosyllabic Vocables.")
In each issue, I'll offer a familiar quote that I've heartlessly hypertrophied with polysyllabic transplants. You'll restore the quote to its original version, with each word just one syllable long.
That is to say, I'll share a fat, fake draft of a famed quote; you'll say the trim real one.
For example, if I say "Exploit an opportunity while the situation allows," then you say, "Make hay while the sun shines." If I say, "Durations remedy every laceration," then you say, "Time heals all wounds."
From the previous issue:
"We constitute such materials as sleeping-hallucinations constitute." --> "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."
Try this today: "Perspicacious optical organs, satisfied spirits, can't experience defeat."
Say that, but in words of one beat each.
Clues:
Where it's from: a TV show.
The year we first heard it: 2008.
review this word:
1. A near opposite of CANDID is
A. CUNNING.
B. DIPLOMATIC.
C. COLD-BLOODED.
2. He spoke with candor about his own illness, never _____ its severity.
A. revealing
B. explaining
C. sugarcoating
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Be candid. Which do you truly prefer: metaphors ("love is a rose"), or similes ("love is like a rose")? Perhaps you don't give a hoot for either? Thanks, I appreciate your candor.
The word "candor" comes straight from Latin, where it means "purity" or "openness," among other things (like "snow," "whiteness," "heat," and "beauty").
Part of speech: noun, the uncountable kind: "I admire her candor," "we ask for your candor."
First, let's clarify: although candor is often good thing, it can also seem immature ("Ew, too much information") or tactless ("Ugh, if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything").
"I hate banking...A desk and a ledger--Oh, I hate them! I would like to live out of doors.' He pointed to the country about them, the stream, the sylvan path they were treading, the wood beside them, with its depths gilded here and there by a ray of the sun. 'I want'--in a burst of candor--'to live my own life! To be able to follow my own bent and make the most of myself.'"
Explain the meaning of "candor" without saying "frankness" or "outspokenness."
At work, in relationships, and among friends, we all walk that line between tact and candor. If you're tactful, you hold things back, for the sake of politeness and social harmony. If you're candid, you don't.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
1. A near opposite of CANDID is
|