dignity
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɪɡnɪti/
Forms: form: dignities
form: dignitie
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dignitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dignus (“worthy, appropriate”), from Proto-Italic *degnos, from Proto-Indo-European *dḱ-nos, from *deḱ- (“to take”). See also decus (“honor, esteem”) and decet (“it is fitting”). Cognate to deign. Doublet of dainty. In this sense, displaced native Old English weorþsċipe, which became Modern English worship.
Senses: examples: text: He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity.
ref: 1751 December (indicated as 1752), Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in Amelia. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for A[ndrew] Millar […], →OCLC:
text: Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.
ref: 1981, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5:
glosses: The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.
examples: text: The reception room was sacred to the dead wife. Her shiny portrait hung upon the wall - similar, doubtless, in all respects to the one which would be pasted on her tombstone. A little piece of black drapery had been tacked above the frame to lend a dignity to woe. But two of the tacks had fallen out, and the effect was now rakish, as that of a drunkard's bonnet.
ref: 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 7, third paragraph
text: Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.
ref: 1934, Aldous Huxley, “Puerto Barrios”, in Beyond the Mexique Bay:
glosses: Decorum, formality, stateliness.
examples: text: Note the preſumption of this Scythian ſlaue:
I tel thee villaine, thoſe that lead my horſe
Haue to their names tytles of dignitie,
And dar’ſt thou bluntly cal me Baiazeth?
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
text: And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Esther 6:3:
text: He ... distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers.
ref: 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:
glosses: High office, rank, or station.
examples: text: These filthy dreamers […] speak evil of dignities.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jude 1:8:
glosses: One holding high rank; a dignitary.
examples: text: Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves.
ref: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.
Synonyms: worth
worthiness
Coordinate terms: augustness
glory
grandeur
humanness
majesty
nobility
superiority
wonderfulness
Derived terms: dignitude
stand on one's dignity
stand upon one's dignity
undignity
Related terms: word: deign
word: dignified
word: dignify
word: affirmation
word: integrity
word: self-esteem
word: self-respect
word: self-worth
urls: http://www.websters1913.com/words/Dignity
https://search.worldcat.org/title/800618302
word: in
urls: http://www.websters1913.com/words/Dignity
https://search.worldcat.org/title/800618302
word: Springfield
urls: http://www.websters1913.com/words/Dignity
https://search.worldcat.org/title/800618302
word: Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
urls: http://www.websters1913.com/words/Dignity
https://search.worldcat.org/title/800618302
word: 1913
urls: http://www.websters1913.com/words/Dignity
https://search.worldcat.org/title/800618302
word: →OCLC
urls: https://server-66-113-234-189.da.direct/century-dictionary.com/html/wnph-chw.php?query=dignity&type=dicts
https://search.worldcat.org/title/867766587
word: William Dwight Whitney
urls: https://server-66-113-234-189.da.direct/century-dictionary.com/html/wnph-chw.php?query=dignity&type=dicts
https://search.worldcat.org/title/867766587
word: Benjamin E[li] Smith
urls: https://server-66-113-234-189.da.direct/century-dictionary.com/html/wnph-chw.php?query=dignity&type=dicts
https://search.worldcat.org/title/867766587
word: editors (1911)
urls: https://server-66-113-234-189.da.direct/century-dictionary.com/html/wnph-chw.php?query=dignity&type=dicts
https://search.worldcat.org/title/867766587
word: in
urls: https://server-66-113-234-189.da.direct/century-dictionary.com/html/wnph-chw.php?query=dignity&type=dicts
https://search.worldcat.org/title/867766587
word: New York
urls: https://server-66-113-234-189.da.direct/century-dictionary.com/html/wnph-chw.php?query=dignity&type=dicts
https://search.worldcat.org/title/867766587
word: N.Y.: The Century Co.
urls: https://server-66-113-234-189.da.direct/century-dictionary.com/html/wnph-chw.php?query=dignity&type=dicts
https://search.worldcat.org/title/867766587
word: →OCLC