Etymologically
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pride

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /praɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pride, prude, prute, inherited from Old English prȳde, prȳte,[2][3][4] formed from prūd “proud”, the source of proud.[2][4][5] Hoad explains prȳde as a later form of prȳte, probably shaped by prūd or Old Norse prýði.[5] Word Origins traces proud and pride through French to Latin prōdesse “to be of value”.[6] Whether the Scandinavian words (Old Norse pryði, Danish pryd) came from Old French or from Old English is debated.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A high or overweening opinion of oneself, especially as one of the deadly sins, and haughtiness or love of display: about 1000 in the OED, late Old English in Etymonline.[7][2][6]

Semantic evolution

From the Middle Ages pride was counted the first of the seven deadly sins.[6][7] In Middle English it could also be positive: proper pride, personal honour, splendour, and spirit in an animal.[2][5] That which makes a person or people most proud, as in the pride of the nation, is from about 1300.[2] The proverb pride goes before a fall rewords Proverbs 16:18, which the Wycliffe Bible gave in 1382.[6][2] A group of lions was called a pride in a late 15th-century book of terms, but the use was not common until the 20th century.[2][6] Pride and prejudice have been paired since the 1610s.[2] The verb, to be proud or pride oneself, is from about 1150 in Barnhart and the mid-12th century in Etymonline.[4][2]

Timeline

  • a. 1000 – overweening self-esteem.[7]
  • c. 1150 – verb, to be proud.[4]
  • c. 1300 – that which one is proud of.[2]
  • c. 1420 – Pride personified as a deadly sin.[7]
  • late 15th century – a group of lions.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A feeling of pleasure and satisfaction in one's own or another's achievements.
  2. Self-respect; a sense of one's own dignity.
  3. Too high an opinion of oneself; arrogance.
  4. The person or thing one is most proud of.
  5. A group of lions.

Verb

  1. pride oneself on: to be proud of a quality or skill.

Word family

  • prideful
  • pridefully
  • pridefulness
  • prideless
  • pridelessly
  • self-pride
  • pride of place
  • pride of the morning

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press