dignityとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• dignitie (obsolete)

語源

Inherited from 中期英語 dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dignitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dignus (“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 古期英語 weorþsċipe, which became Modern English worship.

発音

• IPA: /ˈdɪɡnɪti/

名詞

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:

     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.

   • 2021, Magdalena Smieszek, “A Brief History of Dignity”, in The Evolving Psyche of Law in Europe: The Psychology of Human Rights and Asylum Frameworks, page 205:

     Historically, dignity has been ascribed to an elite group, but human dignity with reference to humanity and the human family has democratized dignity. […] . The idea of dignity as rank was carried over in Christian doctrine […] .

2. Decorum, formality, stateliness. (Discuss this sense)
   • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 7, third paragraph:

     The reception room was sacred to the dead wife. Her shiny portrait hung upon the wall - similar, doubtless, in all respects to the one which would be pasted on her tombstone. A little piece of black drapery had been tacked above the frame to lend a dignity to woe. But two of the tacks had fallen out, and the effect was now rakish, as that of a drunkard's bonnet.

   • 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.

   • 2000, Shawn Francis Peters, Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Rights Revolution, page 120:

     The presence of an attorney from Washington, he wrote, "would lend dignity to the proceedings," and it also would "remove the questions of local prejudices and faction from the picture and would have a very fine effect upon the jury."

3. High office, rank, or station.
   • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; 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, 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, 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:

     Sciences concluding from dignities, and principles known by themselves.

6. (sometimes proscribed) Respect. (Discuss this sense)
   • a. 1873, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, “Prefatory Memoir”, in Speeches of Edward, Lord Lytton Now First Collected. With Some of His Political Writings Hitherto Unpublished, volume 13, published 1874, page xl:

     That in such an undertaking, if put on its right footing, and treated with dignity by the State, you would have the cheerful assistance of the first scientific teachers who have turned their philosophy to such practical uses, I have no doubt.

   • 1916 March 9, Howard T. Cree, The Christian Century, page 7:

     In my twenty years of ministry I have found that the minister was treated with dignity when he was dignified, that he was accorded authority and leadership when he was worthy of it.

   • 1988, “Licensing of Long-term Care Facilities”, in Code of Massachusetts regulations, 1988, section 150.015, page 3013:

     Patients and residents shall be treated with dignity and kindness at all times.

   • 2011, Kimberly Persiani, ‎Steve Springer, The Organized Teacher's Guide to Classroom Management, page 7:

     Students must always be treated with dignity

   • 2019 October 18, Lenore T. Adkins, “Scientist Sebastian Echeverri Treats Spiders with the Dignity They Deserve”, in AAAS blog:

     In the animal kingdom, spiders are a lot like Rodney Dangerfield — they get no respect, says Sebastian Echeverri, a 2019 American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow.

同意語

等位語

派生語

関連する語

参考

参照

• “dignity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “dignity”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “dignity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

アナグラム

• tidying