The words "stoic" and "stolid" seem quite similar to me:
stoic: seeming unaffected by pleasure or pain; impassive [cite]
stolid: having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited [cite]
When would you use one versus the other? Under what circumstances would you not use one of them?
Best Answer
When describing people, stoic has a particularly heroic connotation. A stoic person really braves everything that man, nature, and God throws at him without complaint. Stolid, on the other hand, is not so: You might use it to describe someone who showcases a simple faithfulness, a "friend through thick and thin," but you might also use the word to describe someone who's plodding and utterly unadaptable to change.
Job, of the Book of Job, is stoic. Watson, of Sherlock Holmes, is stolid.