| 释义 |
honesty|ˈɒnɪstɪ|
Forms: 4–5 oneste, -ty, 4–6 honeste, 5–6 -tee, 5–7 -tie, 6 -tye, 6– honesty.
[a. OF. (h)oneste (12th c. in Littré, earlier (h)onestet = It. onestà, Sp. honestad, Pg. honestat), ad. L. honestās, -ātem, n. of quality f. honestus honest, or ? honos honour.]
I. The quality of being honest.
†1. Honourable position or estate; high rank; respectability. Obs.
1509Fisher Fun. Serm. C'tess Richmond Wks. (1876) 296 The straungers of honeste whiche..resorteth for to vysyte the souerayne must be consydered. 1520Caxton's Chron. Eng. iii. 19/2 He [Daniel]..was made a man of greate honeste.
†b. Honour conferred or done; respect. Obs.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 151 He sent his sister Jone with mykelle honeste. 1382Wyclif 1 Cor. xii. 23 The membris that ben vnhonest, han more honeste. c1400Destr. Troy 2861 Þe lell gentils, Þat Venus the worthy worshippit for god, And most honouret of other with oneste þere. 1531Elyot Gov. i. xx, Refuse nat to doe me that honestie in your presence. a1553Udall Royster D. iv. iii. (Arb.) 63 More shame and harme..Then all thy life days thou canst do me honestie. 1613J. Dunster in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxiv. 2 There is an honesty which belongeth to the dead body of a man.
†c. Honour gained by action or conduct; reputation, credit, good name. Obs.
1382Wyclif Wisd. vii. 11 Vnnoumbrable honeste [is] by the hondis of it. 1513More Rich. III (1883) 56 Doctour Shaa by his sermon loste hys honestie, and sone after his life. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 173 b, He hath sclaundred me before many, & so I haue lost myne honesty. 1548Udall Erasm. Par. (?) Pref. 15 Defence of their owne poore honesties.
†d. concr. (collect.) Honourable or respectable people. (Cf. the quality.) Obs. rare.
1563Abp. Parker Articles, That vseth..delay to make any accompte in the presence of the honestye in the parish. 1575J. Still Gamm. Gurton iv. ii. in Hazl. Dodsley III. 228 If such a toy be used oft among the honesty, It may [not] beseem a simple man of your and my degree.
†2. The quality of what is becoming or befitting; decency, decorum; comeliness. Obs.
1375Barbour Bruce i. 548 Hys Eyn with his hand closit he, For to dey with mar honeste. c1400Mandeville (1839) xx. 221 The ordynance..ne the honestee ne the clennesse is not so arrayed there, as it is here. 1538Starkey England i. i. 2 [They] lyuyd lyke wylde bestys in the woodys, wythout lawys and rulys of honesty. 1547Homilies i. Gd. Wks. iii. (1859) 59 How their profession of chastity was kept, it is more honesty to pass over in silence. 1652Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 36 For honestie sake, and for the friendship which the Republick had with the hous of Austria.
3. Honourable character.
†a. Formerly in a wide general sense, including all kinds of moral excellence worthy of honour.
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 5829 ‘A gude castelle’ he says ‘kepes he Þat his body kepes in honeste’. 1390Gower Conf. III. 272 Nought only upon chastete, But upon alle honeste. c1430Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 1856, I shal be glad him forto see, Mi worship to kepe with honestie. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. ii. 26 Encreased in all kynde of honestie, and heauenlye giftes. 1611B. Jonson Catiline iii. ii, Let not..wicked friendship force What honesty and vertue cannot work.
†b. spec. Chastity; the honour or virtue of a woman. Obs.
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1673 Hypsip., Why lyked me thy yelow heer to see More then the boundes of myn honestee. c1400Destr. Troy 2965 Hit were sittyng for sothe, & seemly for wemen..ouer all, þere onesty attell to saue. 1573J. Sandford Hours Recreat. (1576) 158 A poore manne proude, a woman without honestie. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iii. ii. i. (1651) 612 It was commonly practised in Diana's temple, for women to go barefoot over hot coals to try their honesties. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 52 A Venus (like in honestie, though not in beautie).
†c. Generosity, liberality, hospitality. Obs.
c1400Cato's Mor. 152 in Cursor M. App. iv. 1671 Þat þou has gitin to þe, vse hit in honeste & be noȝt calde niþing. 1551Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 138 A manne not onlye of greate learning, but also of as great honesty in seekinge to profite all men by his trauaill. 1607Shakes. Timon iii. i. 29 A Noble Gentleman 'tis, if he would not keep so good a house..euery man has his fault, and honesty is his.
d. Uprightness of disposition and conduct; integrity, truthfulness, straightforwardness: the quality opposed to lying, cheating, or stealing. (The prevailing modern sense.)
1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 197 Yet hath he shown him⁓self as far from honestie, as he is from age, and as full of craft, as he is of courage. 1599Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 102 Our grosse conceipts, who think honestie the best policie. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 127 What other Oath, Then Honesty to Honesty ingag'd, That this shall be, or we will fall for it. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 121 The Saylers will as certainly take it, as you trust it to their honesties. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. i. (1840) 18 Honesty shall be praised and starved..to be high and great, is to be wise and good. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 221 Either of the two suppositions was fatal to the King's character for honesty.
e. transf. of things: cf. honest a. 4 c.
1842J. Bischoff Woollen Manuf. (1862) II. 95 The German, or rather the Polish cloth, cannot be depended upon for honesty, in either the breadth or the length of the cloth.
II.
4. a. The popular name of Lunaria biennis, a cruciferous plant with large purple (sometimes white) flowers and flat round semi-transparent pods (whence the name), commonly cultivated in gardens. Also applied to other species of Lunaria.
1597Gerarde Herbal ii. cxvii. 378 We cal this herb in English Pennie flower..in Northfolk, Sattin, and white Sattin, and among our women it is called Honestie. 1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. ii. 31 The second class contains those whose seed vessel is a silicle..as..honesty. 1868G. Macdonald R. Falconer II. 44 Purple-black heartseases, and thin-filmed silver pods of honesty. 1884Miller Plant-n., Lunaria biennis, Bolbonac, Common Honesty.
b. (In full, maiden's honesty.) A local name of wild Clematis or Virgin's Bower (C. Vitalba).
1640Parkinson Theat. Bot. 384 The Italians call it Vitalba..and in English of most country people where it groweth Honestie. a1697Aubrey Wilts. (R. Soc. MS.) 120 (Britten & H.) About Michaelmass all the hedges about Thickwood..are as it were hung with maydens honesty: which looks very fine. 1888Berks. Gloss., Honesty, the wild clematis is always so called.
†c. small honesty: an old name for various species of Pink (Dianthus). Obs.
1578Lyte Dodoens ii. vii. 156 Called in Englishe by diuers names, as Pynkes, Soppes in wine, feathered Gillofers, and small Honesties. 1597Gerarde Herbal ii. clxxiii. 478. |