amour propre

noun

amour pro·​pre ˌa-ˌmu̇r-ˈprōprᵊ 

ˌä-, 

-ˈprȯprᵊ

: self-esteem

It was an injury to my amour propre to realize that in the Whitcomb affair I had been a small cog on a large wheel.

—Lawrence Sanders

This forum gave its inner circle a chance to work out their various hang-ups in ways acceptable to their own pride and amour propre.

—Anthony Holden

… Rousseau thought that amour-propre was a necessary ingredient of amity and a fulfilled life, though he was also keenly aware of the destructive vanity to which it could give rise.

—Anthony Gottlieb

Synonyms of amour propre

• vanity
• ego
• pridefulness
• pride
• vaingloriousness
• arrogance

Examples of amour propre in a Sentence

if amour propre is a virtue, then this actress's memoirs are among the greatest declarations of love ever written

Recent Examples on the Web

But Edna soon became a case study in exorbitant amour propre, lampooning suburban pretensions, political correctness and the cult of celebrity, and acquiring a damehood along the way. — Margalit Fox, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2023

White is Smart Lite without the emotional volatility and ever-present amour propre. — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 21 June 2022

But Britain, its amour propre stung at losing such a treasure, halted its export and raised money to keep it in the country. — Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2022

Underneath its gleaming promise of public scholarship, Wikipedia is a community that teems with its own authorities and cognoscenti, with all the high-handedness, Byzantine bylaws, and amour propre of any cultural institution on 5th Avenue. — Benjamin Wofford, Wired, 2 Nov. 2020

Fundamental to Chinese amour propre is the belief that the language is too difficult for foreigners, who will never master its complete set of characters. — Peter Neville-Hadley, WSJ, 1 Sep. 2017

There is no such thing as private satisfaction of amour propre. — David Lay Williams, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2017

Concessions at this stage would damage national amour propre to an unacceptable degree. — Patrick N. Theros, Time, 26 July 2017

Word History

Etymology

French amour-propre, literally, love of oneself

First Known Use

1775, in the meaning defined above