propriety
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From late Middle English proprietee, propretee, propriete (“ownership”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman propreté, Middle French proprieté, from Latin proprietās. By surface analysis, prop(e)r + -iety. Doublet of property.
Inflected forms:
form: proprieties
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: The particular character or essence of someone or something; individuality.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
gloss: A characteristic; an attribute.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
gloss: A piece of land owned by someone; someone's property.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
gloss: More generally, something owned by someone; a possession.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: I was fearful of giving You a very sensible Disgust, in making You seem the Propriety of one Man, when You know Yourself ordained for the Comfort and Refreshment of Multitudes.
gloss: The fact of possessing something; ownership.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: This ſweet word, I will be your God, implies, 1. Propriety, that all that is in God ſhall be ours; his love ours, his Spirit ours, his mercy ours.
gloss: Correct language or pronunciation.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
examples: Thoſe who ought to be the guardians of propriety are often the perverters of it. Hence Accidence for Accidents, Prepoſtor for Prepoſitor and Conſtur for Conſtrue[…]
gloss: Suitability, fitness; the quality of being appropriate.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: I find such a pleasure, sir, in obeying your commands, that I take care to observe them without ever debating their propriety.
Now, if we may, with propriety, refer to the people one question, why may we not, with equal propriety, refer another?
gloss: Correctness in behaviour and morals; good manners, seemliness.
pos: noun
tags: countable
in-plural
often
uncountable
examples: “Divine receptacle of excellence, let it not be deemed impertinent, or deviating from the rules of propriety, if I propound one queſtion which now labours in my breaſt; aſſuring me firſt, you will not let the ſceptre of true judgment depart from your right hand.”
Elinor then ventured to doubt the propriety of her receiving such a present from a man so little, or at least so lately known to her.
Miss Griffin was a model of propriety, and I am at a loss to imagine what the feelings of the virtuous woman would have been, if she had known, when she paraded us down the Hampstead Road two and two, that she was walking with a stately step at the head of Polygamy and Mahomedanism.
With a deep sense of personal integrity and a desire to avoid everything which might impair his absolute independence, Polk declined to accept presents of more than nominal value. Shortly after his inauguration Thomas Lloyd sent him a valuable saddlehorse, but he promptly gave orders that it should be returned to the donor. Another admirer who sent a consignment of wine and other delicacies for the President's table was instructed to send a bill or to take the articles away. It soon became known that he would accept nothing of greater value than a book or a cane. The same rule applied to presents for Mrs. Polk.²⁷ The same scrupulous regard for propriety is shown in his refusal to invest in government securities a certain sum of money belonging to his nephew and ward, Marshall T. Polk.²⁸ His public policies were denounced in unmeasured terms, and his political honesty was frequently impugned, but even his enemies credited him with personal integrity and purity of character. His own personal affairs were characterized by simplicity and frugality. This fact has already been noted in the care with which he guarded against exorbitant charges at the time of his inauguration.²⁹
The neighbor is eventually able to sell her home despite Homer’s pants-less affronts to propriety and decency and Bart falls deeply and instantly for one of its new inhabitants, a tough but charming and funny tomboy girl named Laura (voiced by Sara Gilbert) with just the right combination of toughness and sweetness, granite and honey.
Related words: proper
Derived words: impropriety
proprietarian
proprietariat
unpropriety
Translations: