| 释义 |
etiquette|ˈɛtɪkɛt|
[a. Fr. étiquette (:—OF. estiquette). The primary sense in Fr. is represented by Eng. ticket (an adoption either of the word or the synonymous étiquet:—estiquet): in OF. the word chiefly denotes a soldier's billet. The transition from the sense ‘ticket, label’ to that of ‘prescribed routine’ presents no intrinsic difficulty, but its actual history in Fr. is not very clear; the other mod. Romanic langs. have adapted the word from Fr. in the secondary sense; It. etichetta, Sp. etiqueta (‘a book of ceremonies hid in the king's palace’, Del Pino Sp. Dict. 1763).]
1. a. The prescribed ceremonial of a court; the formalities required by usage in diplomatic intercourse. b. The order of procedure established by custom in the army or navy (esp. with reference to promotion), in parliament, etc. c. The conventional rules of personal behaviour observed in the intercourse of polite society; the ceremonial observances prescribed by such rules. d. The unwritten code of honour by which members of certain professions (esp. the medical and legal) are prohibited from doing certain things deemed likely to injure the interests of their brethren, or to lower the dignity of the profession.
a.1750Chesterfield Lett. 19 Mar., Without hesitation kiss his [the Pope's] slipper or whatever else the étiquette of that court requires. Ibid. (1792) IV. 187 Over head and ears engaged in ceremony and étiquette. 1797Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 329 Etiquette..had it's original application to those ceremonial and formal observances practised at Courts..The term came afterwards..to signify certain formal methods used in the transactions between sovereign States. 1865Livingstone Zambesi v. 110 They keep perfect time in this species of court etiquette.
b.1818Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. v. 512 It was to him that, in etiquette, the command of the expedition belonged. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 667 A proceeding, conducted..with such minute attention to prescriptive etiquette. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Etiquette, naval or military observances, deemed to be law. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xx. 459 The later etiquette of procedure on money bills, will be sought in vain in the rolls of the mediæval parliaments.
c.1768Sterne Sent. Journ., The Letter, I was not altogether sure of my etiquette, whether I ought to have wrote or no. 1779J. Moore View Soc. Fr. II. li. 21 For all etiquette of this nature is waved even in Germany at the tables d' Hôtes. 1800E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. IV. 10 A formal dinner; which, according to his ideas of etiquette, he thought himself obliged to give. 1851Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xviii. (1866) 301 Man is..a slave..to etiquette. 1876M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. II. 164 After tea..the bondage of etiquette was loosened.
pl.1859Thackeray Virgin. xxiii. 181 A little place with its pompous ways, small etiquettes and punctilios.
d.1868Rogers Pol. Econ. ii. (1876) 15 The etiquette of certain professional functions prescribes that a service should be divided. 1888Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. 382 A code of etiquette forbids them [lawyers] to undertake certain sorts of work.
†2. A rule of etiquette; an observance prescribed by etiquette. Chiefly pl. Obs.
1771Junius Lett. xlii. 225 note, This diplomatic lord has spent his life in the study and practise of etiquettes. 1779Burgoyne Let. to Constituents (ed. 3) 7 A court etiquette was invented..viz. that the persons whose conduct was so put in question, should not appear at Court pending the enquiry. 1807Cogan Eth. Treat. Passions i. ii. (R.), Ludicrous offences against the laws of custom, or the etiquettes of fashion. 1812Edin. Rev. XX. 76 Some of the etiquettes known in our legal and parliamentary oratory. 1816Keatinge Trav. I. 277 Some of the etiquettes of his majesty's court are rather whimsical.
3. In the primary Fr. sense: A label. rare.
1867Vct. Pollington Half round Old World 121 German matches..with the remarkable lines, ‘If you want a light, I'll shine so bright,’ printed on the etiquette.
4. attrib. and Comb., as etiquette-book; etiquette-bound adj.
1881‘Mark Twain’ Lett. to Publishers (1967) 133 Send me a collection of *etiquette books. 1952N.Y. Hist. Soc. Q. XXXVI. 226 Etiquette books of various years yield information concerning mourning cards and notices. 1954Neuphilologische Mitteilungen LV. 26 The rules laid down in the etiquette books need not always be strictly observed.
1902Westm. Gaz. 28 May 2/1 It is many weary months before the small English lady—*etiquette-bound as the most world-worn mondaine—is at home in foreign ‘Society’.
Hence ˈetiquetted ppl. a., given up to etiquette.
1861H. A. Tilley Japan 385 The contrast altogether between them and the etiquetted ladies of Europe. |