dignity
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Middle English dignitee, from Old French dignite, from Latin dignitas (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dignus (“worthy, appropriate”), probably akin to decus (“honor, esteem”) and decet (“it is fitting”). Cognate to deign.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
dignity (plural dignities)
- A quality or state worthy of esteem and respect.
- 1752, Henry Fielding, Amelia, I. viii
- 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.
- 2008, Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH) [Switzerland]
- 'The dignity of living beings with regard to plants: Moral consideration of plants for their own sake', 3: ... the ECNH has been expected to make proposals from an ethical perspective to concretise the constitutional term dignity of living beings with regard to plants.[1]
- 1752, Henry Fielding, Amelia, I. viii
- 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.[2]
- 1934, Aldous Huxley, "Puerto Barrios", in Beyond the Mexique Bay:
- High office, rank, or station.
- 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.
- 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Coordinate terms
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
quality or state
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Dignity of Plants
- ^ Columbia World of Quotations 1996.
- dignity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- dignity in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
