Etiquette
WordNet
noun
(1) Rules governing socially acceptable behavior
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From étiquette, property, a little piece of paper, or a mark or title, affixed to a bag or bundle, expressing its contents, a label, ticket. The French Court of Louis XIV at Versailles used étiquettes, little cards, to remind courtiers to keep off of the grass and similar rules.
Noun
- The forms required by good breeding, or prescribed by authority, to be observed in social or official life; observance of the proprieties of rank and occasion; conventional decorum; ceremonial code of polite society.
- The customary behavior of members of a profession, business, law, or sports team towards each other.
Quotations
- 1885, Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado
- If you think we are worked by strings, / Like a Japanese marionette, / You don't understand these things / It is simply Court etiquette.
- 2001, Eric R. Wolf, Sydel Silverman, Aram A. Yengoyan, Pathways of Power: Building an Anthropology of the Modern World, page 182
- These then influence other groups, who recut and reshape their patterns of interpersonal etiquettes to fit those utilized by the tone-setting group.