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Origin and history of honesty

honesty(n.)

early 14c., "splendor, honor; elegance," later "honorable position; propriety of behavior, good manners; virginity, chastity" (late 14c.), from Old French oneste, honesté "respectability, decency, honorable action" (12c., Modern French uses the variant honnêteté, as if from Latin *honestitatem), from Latin honestatem (nominative honestas) "honor received from others; reputation, character;" figuratively "uprightness, probity, integrity, virtue," from honestus (see honest). Meaning "moral purity, uprightness, virtue, justness" is from c. 1400; in English, the word originally had more to do with honor than honest.

also from early 14c.

Entries linking to honesty

honest(adj.)

c. 1300, "respectable, decent, of neat appearance," also "free from fraud," from Old French oneste, honeste "virtuous, honorable; decent, respectable" (12c.; Modern French honnête), from Latin honestus "honorable, respected, regarded with honor," figuratively "deserving honor, honorable, respectable," from honos (see honor (n.)) + suffix -tus. Main modern sense of "dealing fairly, truthful, free from deceit" is c. 1400, as is sense of "virtuous, having the virtue of chastity" (of women). Phrase to make an honest woman of "marry (a woman) after seduction" is from 1620s.

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    dishonesty
    late 14c., "disgrace, shame, want of honor," from Old French deshonesté (13c., Modern French deshonnéteté) "dishonor, impropriety," from des- (see dis-) + Latin honestatem (nominative honestas) "honorableness," from honestus "honorable; deserving honor, respectable," from honos "
    moldy
    Your most beautiful bit, that hath all eyes upon her, That her honesty sells for a hogo of honour ; Whose lightness and...
    loyalty
    c. 1400, from Old French loialte, leaute "loyalty, fidelity; legitimacy; honesty; good quality" (Modern French loyauté),...
    margarine
    substitute for Butter, and does not sell his customers by selling it as Butter, and at Butter's value, has very likely found honesty...
    prevarication
    The main modern meaning "evasion, quibbling, act of deviating from truth, honesty, or plain dealing" is attested from 1650s...
    cybernetics
    Help us they may, but at the cost of supreme demands upon our honesty and our intelligence....
    faith
    mid-13c., faith, feith, fei, fai "faithfulness to a trust or promise; loyalty to a person; honesty, truthfulness," from Anglo-French...
    herb
    c. 1300, erbe "non-woody plant," especially a leafy vegetable used for human food, from Old French erbe "grass, herb, plant fed to animals" (12c., Modern French herbe), from Latin herba "grass, an herb; herbage, turf, weeds" (source also of Spanish yerba, Portuguese herva, Italia
    righteousness
    "character of being righteous; purity of heart and rectitude of life; the being and doing right; conformity in character and conduct to a right standard;" an alteration, attested by early 15c., of Middle English rightwisnesse "rightwise," from Old English rehtwisnisse "justice, c
    integrity
    c. 1400, integrite, "innocence, blamelessness; chastity, purity," from Old French integrité and directly from Latin integritatem (nominative integritas) "soundness, wholeness, completeness," figuratively "purity, correctness, blamelessness," from integer "whole" (see integer). Th

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