grace
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɡɹeɪs/
rhymes: -eɪs
Forms: form: graces
Etymology: From Middle English grace, from Old French grace (modern French grâce), from Latin grātia (“kindness, favour, esteem”), from grātus (“pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to praise, welcome”); compare grateful.
The word displaced the native Middle English held, hield (“grace”) (from Old English held, hyld (“grace”)), Middle English este (“grace, favour, pleasure”) (from Old English ēst (“grace, kindness, favour”)), Middle English athmede(n) (“grace”) (from Old English ēadmēdu (“grace”)), Middle English are, ore (“grace, mercy, honour”) (from Old English ār (“honour, grace, kindness, mercy”)).
Senses: examples: text: The Princess brought grace to an otherwise dull and boring party.
text: Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
ref: 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations:
text: I have formerly given the general character of Mr. Addison's style and manner as natural and unaffected, easy and polite, and full of those graces which a flowery imagination diffuses over writing.
ref: 1783, Hugh Blair, “Critical Examniation of the Style of Mr. Addison in No. 411 of The Spectator”, in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres:
glosses: Charming, pleasing qualities.
examples: text: It has become less common to say grace before having dinner.
glosses: A short prayer of thanks before or after a meal.
topics: card-games
games
glosses: In the games of patience or solitaire: a special move that is normally against the rules.
examples: text: The Trill being the most usual Grace, is usually made in Closes, Cadences, and when on a long Note Exclamation or Passion is expressed, there the Trill is made in the latter part of such Note; but most usually upon binding Notes and such Notes as precede the closing Note.
ref: 1683, John Playford, An Introduction to the Skill of Musick: In Three Books, page 47:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A grace note.
examples: text: The dancer moved with grace and strength.
synonyms: gracefulness
glosses: Elegant movement; elegance of movement; balance or poise.
examples: text: The repayment of the loan starts after a three-year grace.
text: With mounting anger the King denounced the pair, both father and son, and was about to condemn them to death when his strength gave out. Faint and trembling he was unable to walk and the sword fell from his hands as he murmured: 'May the Protector of the Buddhist Faith grant me but seven more days grace of life to be quit of this disloyal couple, father and son'.
ref: 1990, Claude de Bèze, translated by E. W. Hutchinson, 1688 revolution in Siam: the memoir of Father de Bèze, s.j, University Press, page 153:
topics: business
finance
glosses: An allowance of time granted to a debtor during which he or she is free of at least part of his normal obligations towards the creditor.
examples: text: But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed vpō me, was not in vaine: But I laboured more abundantly then they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me:
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:10:
text: When she sang in the kirk, folk have told me that they had a foretaste of the musick of the New Jerusalem, and when she came in by the village of Caulds old men stottered to their doors to look at her. Moreover, from her earliest days the bairn had some glimmerings of grace.
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
topics: lifestyle
religion
theology
glosses: Free and undeserved favour, especially of God; unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or for resisting sin.
glosses: An act or decree of the governing body of an English university.
glosses: Mercy, pardon.
Derived terms: airs and graces
begrace
bowgrace
but for the grace of God
cooperating grace
coup de grace
coup-de-grace
covenant of grace
engrace
expectative grace
fall from grace
free grace
good graces
grace and favor
grace and favour
grace-cup
graceful
graceless
gracelike
grace note
grace period
gracesome
grace stroke
graceworthy
gracism
gracist
heart of grace
herb of grace
irresistible grace
lack-grace
means of grace
misgrace
overgrace
prevenient grace
saving grace
say grace
scapegrace
social grace
special grace
state of grace
there but for the grace of God go I
time of grace
ungrace
with bad grace
with good grace
with ill grace
year of grace
your grace
Related terms: sense: Terms related to grace (noun)
word: gracious
sense: Terms related to grace (noun)
word: grateful
sense: Terms related to grace (noun)
word: gratitude