Word of the Day

: February 19, 2024

prestigious

adjective preh-STIH-juss

What It Means

Something described as prestigious has the respect and admiration that someone or something gets for being successful or important.

// Chelsea’s mom often bragged about her daughter’s job at the prestigious company.

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prestigious in Context

“Emma Stone has amassed a trove of prestigious Hollywood awards—an Oscar, two Golden Globes and three SAG Awards among them—but the accolade that eludes her is the one she covets most: ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant.” — Malia Mendez, The Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2024

Did You Know?

You might expect, based on how adjectives are often formed in English, that today’s word is an extension of the noun prestige. However, although both words share the same Latin root, they entered English by different routes and at different times. Moreover, both adjective and noun once had more to do with trickery than respect when they were first used. Prestigious came directly from the Latin adjective praestigiosis, meaning “full of tricks” or “deceitful,” and had a similar meaning upon entering English in the mid-16th century. Praestigiosis in turn came from the plural noun praestigiae, meaning “conjurer’s tricks.” This noun also gave English the word prestige, though it first passed through French and arrived a century after prestigious. Though it wasn’t first on the block, prestige influenced prestigious in a different way, by eventually developing an extended sense of “standing or esteem.” That change spurred a similar development in prestigious, which now means simply “illustrious or esteemed.”