virtue | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

79 entries found.

c. 1200, "to thank," from Old French graciier "thank, give thanks to; praise," from grace "mercy, favor, thanks, virtue" (see grace (n.)). Meaning "to show favor" (mid-15c.) led to that of "to lend or add grace to something" (1580s, as in grace us with your presence), which is the root of the musical sense in grace notes (1650s). Related: Graced; gracing.

hypocrisy (n.)

c. 1200, ipocrisie, "the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness," from Old French ypocrisie, from Late Latin hypocrisis "hypocrisy," also "an imitation of a person's speech and gestures," from Attic Greek hypokrisis "acting on the stage; pretense," metaphorically, "hypocrisy," from hypokrinesthai "play a part, pretend," also "answer," from hypo- "under" (see hypo-) + middle voice of krinein "to sift, decide" (from PIE root *krei- "to sieve," thus "discriminate, distinguish"). The sense evolution in Attic Greek is from "separate gradually" to "answer" to "answer a fellow actor on stage" to "play a part." The h- was restored in English 16c.

Hypocrisy is the art of affecting qualities for the purpose of pretending to an undeserved virtue. Because individuals and institutions and societies most often live down to the suspicions about them, hypocrisy and its accompanying equivocations underpin the conduct of life. Imagine how frightful truth unvarnished would be. [Benjamin F. Martin, "France in 1938," 2005]

costermonger (n.)

1510s, "itinerant apple-seller" from coster (see costard) + monger (n.). Sense extended from "apple-seller" to "hawker of fruits and vegetables," to any salesman who plied his wares from a street-cart. Contemptuous use is as old as Shakespeare ("Virtue is of so little regard in these coster-monger times, that true valour is turn'd bear-herd" "2 Henry IV"), but the reason for it is unclear.

valor (n.)

c. 1300, "value, worth," from Old French valor, valour "valor, moral worth, merit, courage, virtue" (12c.), from Late Latin valorem (nominative valor) "value, worth" (in Medieval Latin "strength, valor"), from stem of Latin valere "be strong, be worth" (from PIE root *wal- "to be strong"). The meaning "courage" is first recorded 1580s, from Italian valore, from the same Late Latin word. (The Middle English word also had a sense of "worth or worthiness in respect of manly qualities").

expert (n.)

early 15c., "person wise through experience," from expert (adj.). The word reappeared 1825 in the legal sense, "person who, by virtue of special acquired knowledge or experience on a subject, presumably not within the knowledge of men generally, may testify in a court of justice to matters of opinion thereon, as distinguished from ordinary witnesses, who can in general testify only to facts" [Century Dictionary].

largesse (n.)

also largess, "willingness to give or spend freely; munificence," c. 1200, from Old French largesse, largece "a bounty, munificence," from Vulgar Latin *largitia "abundance" (source also of Spanish largueza, Italian larghezza), from Latin largus "abundant, large, liberal" (see large). In medieval theology, "the virtue whose opposite is avarice, and whose excess is prodigality" [The Middle English Compendium]. For Old French suffix -esse, compare fortress. Related: Largation.

good (n.)

Old English god (with a long "o"), "that which is good, a good thing; goodness; advantage, benefit; gift; virtue; property;" from good (adj.). Meaning "the good side" (of something) is from 1660s. Phrase for good "finally, permanently" attested from 1711, a shortening of for good and all (16c.). Middle English had for good ne ylle (early 15c.) "for good nor ill," thus "under any circumstance."

Confucius

1724, a Latinization of Chinese K'ung Fu-tzu "K'ung the philosopher (or Master)" (c. 551 B.C.E.-c. 479 B.C.E.), who sought to remedy the degeneracy and oppression of his time by the spread of virtue and learning. The name first appears in the West in a Latin publication of Chinese works (Paris, 1687).

His ethico-political philosophy is based on proper observance of the relationships of human life (parent/child, husband/wife, prince/subject, etc.). The term Confucianism (1836) sometimes is extended to ancient Chinese speculative philosophy generally. Related: Confucian (adj.), 1759.

emerge (v.)

"to rise from or out of anything that surrounds, covers, or conceals; come forth; appear, as from concealment," 1560s, from French émerger and directly from Latin emergere "bring forth, bring to light," intransitively "arise out or up, come forth, come up, come out, rise," from assimilated form of ex "out" (see ex-) + mergere "to dip, sink" (see merge). The notion is of rising from a liquid by virtue of buoyancy. Related: Emerged; emerging.

works (n.)

Old English, "(someone's) deeds, acts, or actions, the things one has done in life," often especially "good deeds, acts of piety, demonstrations of virtue," plural of work (n.). Meaning "operations pertinent to maintaining a large physical place" (private, religious, or municipal) is from late 14c. Meaning "industrial place" (usually with qualifying adjective) is from late 15c. To be in the works in the extended sense of "in the process of being done or made" is by 1973.

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