honour

See also: Honour

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒnə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (UK)

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Noun

honour (countable and uncountable, plural honours)

1. British spelling, Canadian spelling, South African spelling, Commonwealth of Nations, and Ireland standard spelling of honor.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     Noble she is, but if she have forgot
     Honour and virtue, and convers'd with such
     As, like to pitch, defile nobility,
     I banish her my bed and company.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Godlike erect, with native honour clad.

   • 1902, Richard Francis Weymouth, Translation of the New Testament of the Bible, Book 60, 1 Peter 2:4:

     Come to Him, the ever-living Stone, rejected indeed by men as worthless, but in God's esteem chosen and held in honour.

   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     In the following month, driver Ben Gimbert and fireman Jim Nightall (posthumously) were awarded the George Cross, the highest honour the King could give civilians.

Antonyms

• dishonour

Derived terms

• dishonourable
• honorary, (honourary, arch.)
• honorific, (honourific, nonstandard)
• honourable

 

Related terms

• debt of honour
• guest of honour
• honour code
• honour guard
• honours degree
• honour system
• in honour of

 

Translations

honour — see honor

Verb

honour (third-person singular simple present honours, present participle honouring, simple past and past participle honoured)

1. British spelling, Canadian spelling, Commonwealth of Nations, and Ireland standard spelling of honor.

Derived terms

• honour in the breach

Translations

honour — see honor

References

• “honour”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

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Middle English

Etymology

Anglo-Norman honour.

Noun

honour (plural honours)

1. honour

Descendants

• English: honour, honor

References

p. 1, Arthur; A Short Sketch of his Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century, Frederick Furnivall ed. EETS. Trübner & Co.: London. 1864.

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Old French

Noun

honour m (oblique plural honours, nominative singular honours, nominative plural honour)

1. Late Anglo-Norman spelling of honur

   […] prierent au roi qe mesme le cont purroit estre restorez a ses noun et honour de marquys queux il avoit pardevant.

   […] prayed to the king that even the count could be restored to his name and his honour of marquee that he had before