prestige

• præstige (archaic)

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.

• IPA^(key): /pɹɛˈsti(d)ʒ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːʒ, -iːdʒ

prestige (usually uncountable, plural prestiges)

1. 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.

2. (obsolete, often preceded by "the") 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!

• covert prestige
• overt prestige
• prestigious

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.

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

• IPA^(key): /pʁɛs.tiʒ/

• Audio

  (file)

prestige m (plural prestiges)

1. prestige

   de prestige ― prestigious

• prestigieux

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

prestige c

1. prestige

• prestigelös