dignity

noun

Etymology: Inherited from Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dignitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dignus (“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.

1. The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.

   “He uttered this ... with great majesty, or, as he called it, dignity.”

   “Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being.”

2. Decorum, formality, stateliness.

   “The reception room was sacred to the dead wife. Her shiny portrait hung upon the wall - similar, doubtless, in all respects to the one which would be pasted on her tombstone. A little piece of black drapery had been tacked above the frame to lend a dignity to woe. But two of the tacks had fallen out, and the effect was now rakish, as that of a drunkard's bonnet.”

   “Official DIGNITY tends to increase in inverse ratio to the importance of the country in which the office is held.”

3. High office, rank, or station.

   “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?”

   “And the king said, What honour and dignity hath been done to Mordecai for this?”

4. One holding high rank; a dignitary.

   “These filthy dreamers […] speak evil of dignities.”

5. Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.

   “Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves.”

6. Respect.

   “That in such an undertaking, if put on its right footing, and treated with dignity by the State, you would have the cheerful assistance of the first scientific teachers who have turned their philosophy to such practical uses, I have no doubt.”

   “In my twenty years of ministry I have found that the minister was treated with dignity when he was dignified, that he was accorded authority and leadership when he was worthy of it.”