respectability

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English respect Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Latin -tās Latin -abilitas Middle French -abletébor. Middle English -ablete English -ability English respectability From respect + -ability.

1. The quality of being respectable.

   “Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.”

   “Though he knew it not, the subtle spirit of vagabondage had taken possession of his soul, and even of his hat, which seemed suddenly to have lost its original respectability, and acquired an air of dissoluteness.”

2. The class of respectable people.