prestige

Alternative forms

• præstige (archaic)

Etymology

From French prestige (“illusion, fascination, enchantment, prestige”), from Latin praestigium (“a delusion, an illusion”).

Note: despite the phonetic similarities and prestige's old meaning of "delusion, illusion, trick", the word has a different root than prestidigitator (“conjurer”) and prestidigitation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɛˈsti(d)ʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːʒ, -iːdʒ

Noun

prestige (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Delusion; illusion; trick.
   • 1811, William Warburton, Richard Hurd, editor, The works of the Right Reverend William Warburton, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester, volume the ninth, London: Luke Hansard & Sons, OCLC 7605701, page 121:

     That faith which, we are told, was founded on a rock, impregnable to the assaults of men and demons; to the sophisms of infidelity, and the prestiges of imposture!

2. The quality of how good the reputation of something or someone is, how favourably something or someone is regarded.

   Oxford has a university of very high prestige.

Adjective

prestige (not comparable)

1. (sociolinguistics, of a linguistic form) Regarded as relatively prestigious; often, considered the standard language or language variety, or a part of such a variety.
   • 1971, John Gumperz, “Formal and informal standards in Hindi regional language area”, in Language in Social Groups, Stanford: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 48:

     Furthermore there is in each area a well recognized standard, known by a single name, which although often linguistically distinct from local dialects, has served as the prestige form for some time.

   • 1981, Jerzy Rubach, Cyclic Phonology and Palatalization in Polish and English, Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, OCLC 9557130, page 57:

     The 3rd person plural -ą ending is phonetically [ow ̃] or [om], depending on the dialect. However, [ow ̃] is the prestige form.

Further reading

• prestige in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• prestige in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• prestige at OneLook Dictionary Search

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɛs.tiʒ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

prestige m (plural prestiges)

1. prestige

   de prestige ― prestigious

Further reading

• “prestige” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Noun

prestige c

1. prestige