Dignity (Bob Dylan song)
WordNet
noun
(1) The quality of being worthy of esteem or respect
"It was beneath his dignity to cheat"
"Showed his true dignity when under pressure"
(2) Formality in bearing and appearance
"He behaved with great dignity"
(3) High office or rank or station
"He respected the dignity of the emissaries"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From < < < , probably akin to and .
Noun
- A quality or state worthy of esteem and respect, especially humanness, but also, for example, augustness, nobility, majesty, grandeur, glory, superiority, wonderfulness
- 1752, Henry Fielding, Amelia, I. viii
- 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.
- 2008, Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (ECNH)
[Switzerland] - 'The dignity of living beings with regard to plants: Moral consideration of plants for their own sake', 3: ... the ECNH has been expected to make proposals from an ethical perspective to concretise the constitutional term dignity of living beings with regard to plants.
- 1752, Henry Fielding, Amelia, I. viii
- 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.
- 1934, Aldous Huxley, "Puerto Barrios", in Beyond the Mexique Bay:
- high office or rank;
- 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.
- 1781, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, F. III. 231:
See also
- affirmation
- integrity
- self-respect
- self-esteem
- self-worth