dignitary

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *deḱ-

Proto-Indo-European *deḱ-no

Proto-Italic *dek-no-

Latin dignus

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-ts

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts

Proto-Italic *-tāts

Latin -tās

Latin dignitātemlbor.

Old French dignité

French dignité

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzijos

Latin -āriusder.

French -aire

French dignitairebor.

English dignitary

Borrowed from French dignitaire.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪɡnɪtɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

dignitary (plural dignitaries)

1. An important or influential person, or one of high rank or position.
   • 1948, Henry A. Wallace, Andrew Jacob Steiger, Soviet Asia Mission‎^[1], →OCLC, →OL, page 156:

     Chinese dignitaries traveled with us from place to place, and when ready to depart from Urumchi, or Tihwa, we were introduced to the high officials who were going along in the plane.

   • 15 May 2013, Daniel Taylor, “Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic climbs highest to sink Benfica”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     It was a remarkable climax to a match that ended with another of those disappearing acts from John Terry only to re-emerge, in full kit, so he could climb the steps, shake the hands of Eusébio, Michel Platini and all the other dignitaries, then help Frank Lampard to lift the trophy.

Translations

important or influential person

• Bulgarian: сановник (bg) m (sanovnik)
• Catalan: dignatari m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 高官 (zh) (gāoguān), 高僧 (zh) (gāosēng) (senior monk), 要人 (zh) (yàorén)

• Dutch: hoogwaardigheidsbekleder (nl) m, hoogwaardigheidsbekleedster f
• Egyptian: (sꜥḥ)
• Esperanto: altrangulo
• Finnish: merkkihenkilö (fi), arvohenkilö
• French: dignitaire (fr) f
• German: Würdenträger (de) m, Würdenträgerin (de) f
• Greek: αξιωματούχος (el) m (axiomatoúchos)
• Hungarian: méltóság (hu)
• Icelandic: fyrirmaður m, stórmenni n
• Italian: dignitario (it) m
• Japanese: 高官 (ja) (こうかん, kōkan), 高僧 (ja) (こうそう, kōsō), 要人 (ja) (ようじん, yōjin)
• Latin: dignitas (la)
• Manx: ard-er m, ard-ghooinney m
• Māori: paewai
• Persian: عالی رتبه, عالی مقام
• Polish: dygnitarz (pl) m, dostojnik (pl) m
• Portuguese: dignitário (pt) m, dignatário m
• Romanian: demnitar (ro) m
• Russian: сано́вник (ru) m (sanóvnik)
• Spanish: dignatario (es) m
• Swedish: dignitär (sv) c
• Unami: ahinu
• Welsh: urddasolion pl

Adjective

dignitary (not comparable)

1. Relating to dignity.
   • 2015, J. M. Bernstein, Torture and Dignity: An Essay on Moral Injury, page 140:

     The badness of a dignitary harm derives from the victim's belief that a perpetrator is willing to override or ignore her standing as a person with rights, with dignity, as evidenced by the wrongful criminal deed; […]