honesty

name

1. A female given name.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English honeste (“honour, integrity”), from Old French honesté (compare modern French honnêteté) (honest + -y); the plant, from the visibility of the seeds through the translucent pods. Displaced native Old English sōþfæstnes; and non-native Middle English prodonomee, from Old French prodomie.

1. The act, quality, or condition of being honest.

   “academic / artistic / emotional / intellectual honesty”

   “brutal / devastating / searing honesty”

2. Honor; decency, propriety.

   “Have ye no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?”

   “Fellovves in armes faithfull and valiant, / I thanke you for your paines and honeſties, […]”

3. Chastity.

   “[…] spend all I have; only give me so much of your time in exchange of it, as to lay an amiable siege to the honesty of this Ford’s wife […]”

   “c. 1625, John Fletcher, The Fair Maid of the Inn, Act V, Scene 1, in Alexander Dyce (editor), The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, New York: Appleton, 1890, Volume 2, p. 669, […] Oh, these vild women, That are so ill preservers of men’s honours, They cannot govern their own honesties!”

4. Any of various crucifers in the genus Lunaria, several of which are grown as ornamentals, particularly annual honesty (Lunaria annua).

   “Various measures were taken to avoid it, most popular being the suspension of certain herbs and tree branches over the doorways of dwellings and stables. Commonly used greenery were tansy, honesty, garlic, St. John's Wort, mountain ash, roadside verbena.”

   “She thought a minute, then stepped nimbly back into her cottage; and what she came out with at last was, a sprig of dry leaves, round as shillings, white as paper, quivering on a few thin stalks that looked ready to snap. / It was honesty.”