Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman honore, honoure, honure, honneure, oner, Anglo-Norman and Old French honor, honur, onur, onour, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French honour, Anglo-Norman and Middle French honneur, honeur, onneur, honnour (French honneur) mark of esteem (10th cent.), office, responsibility (10th cent.), esteem, respect, repute, renown (11th cent.), domain, feudal possession (c1100), dignity, dignified conduct (especially of a woman) (12th cent.), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin honor (also honōs) esteem, respect, mark of esteem, privilege, public or political office, holding of office, dignity, grace, in post-classical Latin also as a title (6th cent.), benefice, fief (9th cent.), seigniory, group of fiefs (frequently from 11th cent. in British and continental sources), of unknown origin. Compare Old Occitan onor, Catalan honor (14th cent.), Spanish honor (10th cent. as honore), Portuguese honor (13th cent.), Italian onore (13th cent.).Spelling history. Like many other nouns of condition with ultimate etymons in Latin ending in -or , honour came increasingly often to be spelt with -or in early modern English (compare general discussion at -or suffix). The form honour is generally preferred in British dictionaries from the mid 17th cent., although a notable exception is Ash 1775 (who describes honor as ‘a modern but correct spelling, from the Lat[in]’). For comment on 18th-cent. usage compare:1758 J. Armstrong Sketches 19 Our Reformers in the Art of Spelling..at present..write Honor, Favor, Labor.a1791 J. Wesley Wks. (1872) VIII. 317 Avoid the fashionable impropriety of leaving out the u in many words, as honor, vigor, etc. This is mere childish affectation.The form honor was preferred by Noah Webster, and today honour shows the same pattern as a number of other nouns of condition showing -or suffix, with the spelling honour generally being preferred in Britain, but honor in the United States. In modern British English the spelling of derivative formations and other related words varies between honour- and honor-, with spellings in honor- generally being used for those words where the connection with a Latin etymon or model is more evident, and spellings in honour- for those words where the derivative relationship with honour is most obvious; compare e.g. honoured, honourable, honourless, beside e.g. honorary, honorific, honorand. Johnson 1755 likewise has honourable beside honorary, but there is much more variation among his contemporaries.

Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman honourer, hunurer, onourer, onurer, Old French honerer, onerer, Anglo-Norman and Old French onorer, honurer, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French honorer, Middle French honnourer (French honorer ) to treat with honour or respect, to hold in high esteem, to venerate, to confer honour or marks of respect upon, to confer prestige upon (10th cent.), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin honōrāre to confer honour on, show respect to, to celebrate, in post-classical Latin also to pay a fee to (clergy) (Vetus Latina; early 3rd cent. in Tertullian), to entertain or provide for a person (Vulgate) < honor honour n. Compare Old Occitan onorar , onrar , Catalan honrar (14th cent.), honorar (1460), Spanish honrar (13th cent.; 12th cent. as ondrar ), Portuguese honrar (13th cent.), honorar (16th cent.), Italian onorare (13th cent.). Compare anoure v.In Middle English prefixed and unprefixed forms of the past participle are attested (see y- prefix). Compare note at honour n. on the spelling history. With sense 3b compare anoure v. and discussion at that entry. With sense 4a compare French honorer (1723 in this sense; 16th cent. in Middle French in sense ‘to pay a (doctor's) fee’).