dignity

dignity

English

Etymology

From Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dīgnitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dīgnus (“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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪɡnɪti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

dignity (countable and uncountable, plural dignities)

1. The state of being dignified or worthy of esteem: elevation of mind or character.
   • 1751 December (indicated as 1752), Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in Amelia. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for A[ndrew] Millar […], OCLC 1159707239:

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

   • 1981, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 5

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

2. Decorum, formality, stateliness.
   • 1934, Aldous Huxley, "Puerto Barrios", in Beyond the Mexique Bay:

     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.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     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?

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Esther 6:3:

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

   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:

     He ... distributed the civil and military dignities among his favourites and followers.

4. One holding high rank; a dignitary.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Jude 1:8:

     These filthy dreamers […] speak evil of dignities.

5. (obsolete) Fundamental principle; axiom; maxim.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], OCLC 152706203:

     Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves.

6. (euphemistic) The male genitalia. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

• worth
• worthiness

Coordinate terms

• augustness, humanness, nobility, majesty, grandeur, glory, superiority, wonderfulness

Derived terms

• stand on one's dignity
• stand upon one's dignity

 

Related terms

• deign
• dignified
• dignify

Translations

quality or state

Adyghe: please add this translation if you can Afar: please add this translation if you can Afrikaans: waardigheid Albanian: denjësi (sq), hir (sq), dinjitet (sq), Amharic: please add this translation if you can Arabic: كَرَامَة‎ (ar) f (karāma), وَقَار‎ m (waqār), مَنْزِلَة‎ f (manzila), شَأْن‎ m (šaʾn), عِزَّة‎ f (ʿizza), شَرَف‎ (ar) m (šaraf) Aragonese: please add this translation if you can Armenian: արժանապատվություն (hy) (aržanapatvutʿyun) Assamese: please add this translation if you can Asturian: dignidá f Aymara: please add this translation if you can Azerbaijani: ləyaqət, şərəf (az) Bashkir: please add this translation if you can Basque: duintasun Belarusian: го́днасць f (hódnascʹ), дасто́інства n (dastóinstva) Bengali: মর্যাদা (môrĵada) Breton: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: досто́йнство (bg) n (dostójnstvo) Burmese: အသရေ (my) (a.sa.re), သိန် (my) (sin) Catalan: dignitat (ca) f Cherokee: ᎠᏢᏉᏙᏗ (atlvquododi) Chichewa: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: 尊嚴／尊严 (zh) (zūnyán) Cornish: dynita m Czech: důstojnost (cs) f Danish: værdighed c Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can Dutch: waardigheid (nl) f Dzongkha: please add this translation if you can Esperanto: digno (eo) Estonian: väärikus Ewe: please add this translation if you can Extremaduran: please add this translation if you can Faroese: tign f, sómi m, manslæti n, virðileiki m, tignarlæti n Finnish: arvokkuus (fi) French: dignité (fr) f Friulian: please add this translation if you can Galician: dignidade (gl) f Georgian: ღირსება (ɣirseba) German: Würde (de) f Greek: αξιοπρέπεια (el) f (axioprépeia) Ancient: σεμνότης f (semnótēs) Gujarati: please add this translation if you can Hausa: please add this translation if you can Hawaiian: hanohano, kapukapu Hebrew: כָּבוֹד‎ (he) m (kavód) Hindi: गरिमा (hi) m (garimā), इज़्ज़त f (izzat) Hungarian: méltóság (hu) Icelandic: virðuleiki m, reisn f Ido: digneso (io) Igbo: please add this translation if you can Indonesian: martabat (id) Interlingua: dignitate Irish: dínit f, ardchéim f, gradam m Italian: dignità (it) f Japanese: 尊厳 (ja) (そんげん, songen) Kannada: please add this translation if you can Kazakh: қадір-қасиет (qadır-qasiet) Khmer: សេចក្ដីថ្លៃថ្នូរ (sackdəy thlay thnou) Korean: 존엄(尊嚴) (joneom), 존엄성(尊嚴性) (joneomseong) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: rûmet (ku) Kyrgyz: кадыр (ky) (kadır), нарк (ky) (nark) Lao: ສັກສີ (sak sī) Latin: dignitas (la) f Latvian: cieņa f Lithuanian: orumas m Luganda: please add this translation if you can Luxembourgish: Dignitéit Macedonian: достоинство n (dostoinstvo) Malay: maruah Maltese: dinjità f Manx: mooaralys f Maori: amarutanga Marathi: मोठेपण (moṭhepaṇ) Middle English: dignyte, deynte Mirandese: denidade f Mongolian: Cyrillic: нэр хүнд (ner xünd) Norwegian: verdighet (no) Old English: weorþsċipe m Oriya: ମର୍ଯ୍ୟାଦା (or) (môrjyada) Pashto: وقار‎ m (weqãr), شان‎ (ps) m (šān), حيثيت‎ (ps) m (haysyát) Persian: منزلت‎ (fa) (manzelat), شأن‎ (fa) (ša'n), ورج‎ (fa) (varj), کرامت‎ (fa) (karâmat), وقار‎ (fa) (waqâr), عزت‎ (fa) ('ezzat), شرف‎ (fa) (šaraf) Polish: godność (pl) f Portuguese: dignidade (pt) f Punjabi: please add this translation if you can Rajasthani: please add this translation if you can Romanian: demnitate (ro) f Romansch: dignitad f (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran), dignited f (Puter), dignità f (Vallader) Russian: досто́инство (ru) n (dostóinstvo) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: достојанство n Roman: dostojanstvo (sh) n Sindhi: please add this translation if you can Sinhalese: අභිමානය (abhimānaya) Slovak: dôstojnosť f Slovene: dostojanstvo (sl) n Somali: please add this translation if you can Spanish: dignidad (es) f Swedish: värdighet (sv) c Tagalog: dignidad Tajik: шаън (tg) (šaʾn), манзалат (manzalat), виқор (viqor), каромат (karomat), иззат (tg) (izzat), шараф (šaraf) Tamil: please add this translation if you can Telugu: గౌరవం (te) (gauravaṁ) Thai: ศักดิ์ศรี (th) (sàk-sǐi) Turkish: haysiyet (tr), şeref (tr) Turkmen: mertebe Ukrainian: досто́їнство n (dostójinstvo), гі́дність f (hídnistʹ) Urdu: وقار‎ (vaqār), عزت‎ (ur) f ('izzat) Uzbek: viqor (uz), martaba (uz) Vietnamese: nhân phẩm (vi) (人品) Volapük: please add this translation if you can Walloon: please add this translation if you can Welsh: urddas (cy) Wolof: please add this translation if you can Xhosa: please add this translation if you can Yiddish: ווערדע‎ f (verde) Yoruba: please add this translation if you can Zulu: please add this translation if you can

formality, stateliness

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: plechtigheid (nl) c Finnish: juhlavuus (fi), muodollisuus (fi) French: forme (fr) f German: Förmlichkeit (de) f Greek: Ancient: βάρος n (báros), πρόστασις f (próstasis) Hungarian: illem (hu) Irish: ardchéim f, dínit f, maorgacht f, uaisleacht f Maori: amarutanga Russian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: dignidad (es) f

high office or rank

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: титла (bg) f (titla) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: waardigheid (nl) c Finnish: arvoasema (fi) (office), arvonimi (fi) (rank) French: rang (fr) m, dignité (fr) f German: Amt (de) n Hungarian: méltóság (hu) Interlingua: dignitate Irish: ardchéim f Manx: ardcheim f Middle English: dignyte Polish: dostojność f, dostojeństwo (pl) n Russian: зва́ние (ru) n (zvánije), сан (ru) m (san), до́лжность (ru) f (dólžnostʹ) Spanish: dignidad (es) f

See also

• affirmation
• integrity
• self-respect
• self-esteem
• self-worth

• dignity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• dignity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Anagrams

• tidying