etiquette

etiquette
/et"i kit, -ket'/, n.
1. conventional requirements as to social behavior; proprieties of conduct as established in any class or community or for any occasion.
2. a prescribed or accepted code of usage in matters of ceremony, as at a court or in official or other formal observances.
3. the code of ethical behavior regarding professional practice or action among the members of a profession in their dealings with each other: medical etiquette.
[1740-50; < F étiquette, MF estiquette ticket, memorandum, deriv. of estiqu(i)er to attach, stick < Gmc. See STICK2, -ETTE]
Syn. 1. ETIQUETTE, DECORUM, PROPRIETY imply observance of the formal requirements governing behavior in polite society. ETIQUETTE refers to conventional forms and usages: the rules of etiquette. DECORUM suggests dignity and a sense of what is becoming or appropriate for a person of good breeding: a fine sense of decorum. PROPRIETY (usually plural) implies established conventions of morals and good taste: She never fails to observe the proprieties.

* * *

▪ social norm
      system of rules and conventions that regulate social and professional behaviour. In any social unit there are accepted rules of behaviour upheld and enforced by legal codes; there are also norms of behaviour mandated by custom and enforced by group pressure. An offender faces no formal trial or sentence for breach of etiquette; the penalty lies in the disapproval of other members of the group. Regardless of its level of material culture, any highly stratified society will possess an etiquette in which every person knows the behaviour expected from him toward others and from others toward himself.

      The royal court was the natural home of etiquette, because it centred upon a monarch around whom niceties of behaviour spread in expanding circles. The author of Beowulf, writing of Anglo-Saxon society, describes Wealtheow the queen, “mindful of etiquette,” carrying the goblet first to the king, then to the courtiers, in a clearly defined order of precedence.

 The Middle Ages was a golden period for Western etiquette, since the feudal system was strictly stratified. Jean Froissart in his Chronicle speaks of the Black Prince waiting at table upon the captive king John of France, after the Battle of Poitiers.

 In Britain standards of conduct were greatly affected by the publication in the 16th century of certain Italian works known as courtesy books. Probably the most influential of these was Baldassare Castiglione's Il libro del cortegiano (1528; The Book of Courtesy, 1561). Further elaborations by English authorities—e.g., Richard Brathwaite's The English Gentleman and Description of a Good Wife—arrived in colonial America with passengers of the “Mayflower.” These British imports were soon followed by such indigenous products as the manual for parents entitled School of Good Manners (attributed to Eleazar Moody, 1715).

      The late 18th and early 19th centuries showed another great flowering of etiquette in Britain when exquisites like Beau Nash and Beau Brummell (Brummell, Beau) imposed their whims as rules upon polite society; even the Prince Regent would not leave his waistcoat unbuttoned to a greater degree than Brummell prescribed. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries those in the upper strata of society regarded the observance of the most trivial demands of etiquette as at once a diversion and, for the women, an occupation. More and more elaborate rituals were designed to create a sense of exclusiveness for the initiates and to keep the unworthy, ignorant of them, at a distance.

 By mid-20th century, however, concern about polite conduct was no longer confined to a social elite. Good manners for ordinary people in everyday situations were set forth in the United States by two prominent and influential arbiters of taste, Emily Post (Post, Emily) and Amy Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt, Amy). Drawing on her own wide experience in social, political, and diplomatic situations, no less a personage than Eleanor Roosevelt published her own typically practical Book of Common Sense Etiquette (1962).

      World wars and increasing social equality resulted in a simpler code, appropriate to the faster tempo and less pampered conditions of life in society. Nonetheless, etiquette remains active on royal or ceremonial occasions and in the more formal aspects of professional or communal life. No rule of law or principle of morality decrees that a soup plate should be tilted away from, never toward, the diner, or that (in Great Britain) a surgeon shall be known as “Mr.” while a physician is addressed as “Dr.,” but etiquette ordains it. Since the framework and content of the communities of which society is formed are constantly changing, the habits of etiquette can and do change with them.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую
Synonyms:
(of behavior, as that set down on a card or ticket on the occasion of ceremonies at court), , , ,


Look at other dictionaries:

  • étiquette — [ etikɛt ] n. f. • estiquette « poteau de but » 1387, mot picard; de l a. v. estiquer « attacher, ficher », néerl. stikken, frq. °stikkan; cf. astiquer, ticket I ♦ 1 ♦ (1549) Dr. Vx Écriteau sur le dossier d un procès, portant les noms du… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Etiquette — Étiquette Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom …   Wikipédia en Français

  • etiquette — ETIQUETTE. s. f. Petit escriteau qu on met, qu on attache sur un sac de procés, contenant les noms du demandeur, & du deffendeur, du Procureur &c. Il faut mettre une etiquette à ce sac. On dit fig. & prov. Juger, condamner sur l etiquette du sac …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • etiquette — et‧i‧quette [ˈetɪket ǁ kət] noun [uncountable] the formal rules for behaviour: • the professional rules of etiquette imposed by the Law Society • Business etiquette (= rules for behaviour by businesspeople ) is still very important in corporate… …   Financial and business terms

  • Etiquette — Et i*quette , n. [F. prop., a little piece of paper, or a mark or title, affixed to a bag or bundle, expressing its contents, a label, ticket, OF.estiquete, of German origin; cf. LG. stikke peg, pin, tack, stikken to stick, G. stecken. See… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • etiquette — 1750, from Fr. étiquette prescribed behavior, from O.Fr. estiquette label, ticket (see TICKET (Cf. ticket)). The sense development in French perhaps is from small cards written or printed with instructions for how to behave properly at court (Cf …   Etymology dictionary

  • etiquette — ► NOUN ▪ the code of polite behaviour in a society. ORIGIN French, list of ceremonial observances of a court , also label, etiquette , from Old French estiquette (see TICKET(Cf. ↑ticket)) …   English terms dictionary

  • etiquette — [et′i kit, et′iket] n. [Fr étiquette, lit., TICKET] 1. the forms, manners, and ceremonies established by convention as acceptable or required in social relations, in a profession, or in official life 2. the rules for such forms, manners, and… …   English World dictionary

  • ETIQUETTE — (Heb. דֶּרֶךְ־אֶרֶץ, derekh ereẓ), the proper conduct of man at home and in society. The sages demanded of the Jew, particularly the scholar, good manners in all his activities. The rules of derekh ereẓ are assembled in the tractates Avot, Derekh …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Etiquette — (fr., spr. Etikett), 1) die Aufschrift, Anschrift an etwas; 2) das Zettelchen, das man an die Waaren heftet, enthält außer der Angabe der Qualität auch wohl Ein u. Verkaufspreis. Auch Pflanzen u. junge Bäume pflegt man mit E n zu versehen, worauf …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Etiquette — Etiquette, s. Etikette …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”