etiquette

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Noun 1.3.1 Quotations 1.3.2 Related terms 1.3.3 Translations

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From French étiquette, property, a little piece of paper, or a mark or title, affixed to a bag or bundle, expressing its contents, a label, ticket. The French Court of Louis XIV at Versailles used étiquettes, little cards, to remind courtiers to keep off of the grass and similar rules.

[edit] Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛt

[edit] Noun

etiquette (plural etiquettes)

1. The forms required by good breeding, or prescribed by authority, to be observed in social or official life; observance of the proprieties of rank and occasion; conventional decorum; ceremonial code of polite society.
2. The customary behavior of members of a profession, business, law, or sports team towards each other.

[edit] Quotations

• 1885, Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado

  If you think we are worked by strings, / Like a Japanese marionette, / You don't understand these things / It is simply Court etiquette.

• 2001, Eric R. Wolf, Sydel Silverman, Aram A. Yengoyan, Pathways of Power: Building an Anthropology of the Modern World, page 182

  These then influence other groups, who recut and reshape their patterns of interpersonal etiquettes to fit those utilized by the tone-setting group.

[edit] Related terms

• etiquettal

[edit] Translations