• prestige •
Pronunciation: pres-teezh • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)
Meaning: High level of respect, importance, great influence, high standing in the eyes of others, commanding position.
Notes: Here is a French word copied by English so recently (early 19th century) that the French pronunciation is still preserved. The English version ([pres-teej]) is just emerging in a few English dictionaries. The adjective prestigious ([pres-tij-ês]) and noun prestigiousness ([pres-tij-ês-nis]) have already been Anglicized.
In Play: Prestige usually comes from positions of power: "Siddie Hall used the prestige of her office as mayor to financially benefit her and her relatives." However, power need not play a role: "The idea that vaccination does more harm than good is enjoying considerably more prestige today than in the past."
Word History: Today's Good Word is obviously French but at a time when the French word meant "deceit, imposture, illusion". So, the English word brought that meaning with it. French inherited the word from Latin praestigium "illusion, delusion", a word created from prae "before" + stringere "to draw tight, bind, compress". Prae came from PIE per/por "over, beyond, before", source also of Sanskrit pare "thereupon", Greek parai "at", Lithuanian prie "at", Russian pere- "over, across" and pri- "to(wards), and English fore "before" and far. Latin nasalized (added an N to) PIE streig-/stroig- "to stroke, rub, (com)press" to create stringere. The PIE word seems to also be the source of Greek strangein "to twist", Dutch stram "stiff", German stramm "tight", and English stretch and strain. (Now a note of gratitude to an old friend, Tony Bowden of London, for recommending today's fascinating if borrowed Good Word.)
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