dignity
English
Alternative forms
- dignitie (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dīgnitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dīgnus (“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.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈdɪɡnɪti/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
dignity (countable and uncountable, plural dignities)
- The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.
- 1751 December (indicated as 1752), Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in Amelia. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for A[ndrew] Millar […], →OCLC:
- He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity.
- 1981, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5:
- Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.
- Decorum, formality, stateliness.
- 1934, Aldous Huxley, “Puerto Barrios”, in Beyond the Mexique Bay:
- Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.
- High office, rank, or station.
- c. 1587–1588, [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:
- 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?
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Esther 6:3:
- And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?
- 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:
- He ... distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers.
- One holding high rank; a dignitary.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jude 1:8:
- These filthy dreamers […] speak evil of dignities.
- (obsolete) Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.
- 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
- Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves.
Synonyms
Coordinate terms
Derived terms
Translations
quality or state
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formality, stateliness
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high office or rank
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See also
- “dignity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “dignity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
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