introvert
Pluralintroverts
Verbintroverts, introverting, introverted
Pluralintroverts
Formsintroverts, introverting, introverted
- 1A person whose energy and attention turn inward, who tends to be more thoughtful than outgoing and often prefers quiet time alone.
Like a deep lake that stays calm beneath the surface while others ripple with activity.
A classic introvert, he left the party early to enjoy some quiet at home.
Long team meetings can drain introverts who prefer working independently.
Oppositeextrovert
Note
A term of Jung's psychology before it was an everyday label. His German works made it popular, and Constance Ellen Long's 1916 translation of his Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology sets the Introvert against the Extravert. Phyllis Blanchard was already spelling the partner extrovert in 1918. In the technical sense it names a type of mind, one that deals with the world, as Charles Fox put it in 1925, by concentrating "upon the inner world of thought."
- 2A reserved person who keeps to themselves and does not readily express thoughts or feelings.
Like a locked drawer whose contents stay hidden until trust opens it.
A natural introvert, she rarely volunteered details about her personal life.
The introverts on the team listened far more than they spoke during the retreat.
Similarloner
Oppositeextrovert
Note
The loose, everyday stretch of the word, and one that careful usage objects to. Calling someone an introvert simply because they are quiet or reserved blurs the psychological type, which describes where attention turns rather than how much a person talks. Where precision matters, reserved, shy or private says what is meant. Keep introvert for the inward-turned temperament.
- 3Alternative form of introverted.
Her introvert temperament made the open-plan office exhausting.
The introvert side of his character emerged after long social events.
Note
The bare stem used as an adjective, where most writers reach for introverted. It compares with more and most rather than with an ending. The British Journal of Psychology in 1934 described subjects as "noticeably more introvert, schizoid and desurgent." Because it shares its spelling with the noun, a phrase like an introvert temperament can read like a noun compound. Introverted avoids that ambiguity.
- 4A body part or organ that can be turned inside out, especially the front section of certain worms that pulls back in.
Like the retractable lens of a camera sliding in and out of its housing.
Biologists watched the worm extend its introvert to probe the sediment.
The introverts of these annelids retract rapidly when the creatures are disturbed.
Note
The zoologist's sense, and the most literal one: New Latin intrōvertere, from intro- "within" and vertere "to turn", describes exactly what the organ does. A peanut worm's body divides into trunk and introvert, the narrow front section with the mouth at its tip. Fluid pressure pushes the introvert out, or everts it, and muscles pull it back in. E. Ray Lankester in 1883 grouped such parts as "intro- and e-versible tubes."
- 5To direct one's thoughts inward, reflecting on internal or spiritual matters.
Like closing the shutters to focus on the room within rather than the street outside.
After the funeral, he began to introvert, dwelling on questions of meaning and faith.
Monks introvert during long periods of silent retreat.
Similarreflect, meditate, contemplate, ruminate
Note
Older than the psychology: the verb was at home in devotional and reflective prose long before Jung. Abraham Woodhead's 1671 translation of the life of Saint Teresa has the soul "introverted into itself." Hazlitt writes in 1822 that "our ideas are introverted." In both, the verb is transitive: something is turned inward. That same inward-turning is what the adjective introverted still carries.
- 6To draw an organ or body part back into itself or into its base.
Like a turtle drawing its head into its shell.
The sea cucumber can introvert its tentacles the instant it is disturbed.
These worms introvert the proboscis the moment a shadow passes overhead.
Similarretract, withdraw, invaginate
Note
The action behind the worm's retractable organ: what a worm introverts is its introvert. The opposite movement is eversion, pushing the part back out, and zoologists describe the two together. The older, looser sense of simply turning inward shows in William Cowper's The Task (1785), where an awkward figure walks on "introverted toes." Those toes are turned in, not drawn back.
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Origin
This comes from New Latin intrōvertere, which combines intro- ("within") with vertere ("to turn"). Carl Jung's German works popularized it as a psychological term, and by surface analysis it breaks down into intro- + -vert.