decorous

English

Etymology

From Latin decōrus (“seemly, becoming”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkəɹəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

decorous (comparative more decorous, superlative most decorous)

1. Marked by proper behaviour.

   Antonym: indecorous

   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Animadversions on Some of the Writers who have Rendered Women Objects of Pity, Bordering on Contempt”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, →OCLC, section III, page 174:

     The narrow path of truth and virtue inclines neither to the right nor left—it is a ſtraightforward buſineſs, and they who are earneſtly purſuing their road, may bound over many decorous prejudices, without leaving modeſty behind.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter LXI, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     There came a day when the round of decorous pleasures and solemn gaieties in which Mr. Jos Sedley’s family indulged was interrupted by an event which happens in most houses.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XLIII, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     But who can fathom the subtleties of the human heart? Certainly not those who expect from it only decorous sentiments and normal emotions.

   • 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter I, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:

     The green eyes in the carefully sweet face were turbulent, willful, lusty with life, distinctly at variance with her decorous demeanor.

Derived terms

• decorously
• decorousness

Translations

behaving properly

• Armenian: պատշաճ (hy) (patšač)
• Bulgarian: пристоен (bg) (pristoen), благоприличен (bg) (blagopriličen)
• Dutch: keurig (nl), goed (nl), net (nl), welvoeglijk (nl)
• German: anständig (de), schicklich (de), geziemend (de)
• Irish: oiriúnach
• Manx: beasagh
• Romanian: cuviincios (ro), decoros
• Russian: благопристо́йный (ru) (blagopristójnyj), поря́дочный (ru) (porjádočnyj), прили́чный (ru) (prilíčnyj), присто́йный (ru) (pristójnyj)
• Spanish: decoroso (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} layak (id), ^{(please verify)} laik (id), ^{(please verify)} ramah (id), ^{(please verify)} halus (id), ^{(please verify)} anggun (id), ^{(please verify)} tahu tatakrama