prestige means regarded as relatively prestigious; often, considered the standard language or language variety, or a part of such a variety. It carries an Arena rating of 1528, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, prestige ranks #456 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #730 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #4,393 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #4,982 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
prestige is pronounced /pɹɛsˈtiːd͡ʒ/.
Why “prestige” is a great word
The quality of how favorably something or someone is regarded, deriving from high achievement, association, or perceived excellence. From French prestige ("illusion, fascination, enchantment"), from Latin praestīgium ("a delusion, an illusion"), first attested in English c. 1650s. Unlike "reputation," which can be sullied or merely neutral, or "authority," which is institutional power, prestige is the specific luminosity of esteem—a borrowed glow. It is the weight of an ancient university's stone, the subdued gleam of a trophy in a cabinet, the deferential hush that follows a certain name into a room. Prestige is the magician's final trick: the audience knows, somewhere, that the levitation is engineered, yet they applaud the floating all the same.
Etymology
From French prestige (“illusion, fascination, enchantment, prestige”), from Latin praestīgium (“a delusion, an illusion”). Despite the phonetic similarities and the old meaning of “delusion, illusion, trick”, the word has a different root than prestidigitator (“conjurer”) and prestidigitation.
adj
- Regarded as relatively prestigious; often, considered the standard language or language variety, or a part of such a variety.e.g.“Furthermore there is in each area a well recognized standard, known by a single name, which although often linguistically distinct from local dialects, has served as the prestige form for some time.” — 1971, John Gumperz, “Formal and informal standards in Hindi regional language area”, in Language in Social Groups, Stanford: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 48:
noun
- The quality of how good the reputation of something or someone is, how favourably something or someone is regarded.e.g.“Oxford has a university of very high prestige.”
- Delusion; illusion; trick.e.g.“That faith which, we are told, was founded on a rock, impregnable to the assaults of men and demons; to the sophisms of infidelity, and the prestiges of imposture!” — 1811, William Warburton, edited by Richard Hurd, The works of the Right Reverend William Warburton, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester, volume the ninth, London: Luke Hansard & Sons, →OCLC, page 121:
- The act of starting over at an earlier point in a video game with some type of bonus or reward.
- A level, rank, or tier corresponding to prestige.
verb
- To start over at an earlier point in a video game with some type of bonus or reward.e.g.“This seriously depends on the prerequisites, but most chars will already have a +1 bow by the time they're thinking of prestiging - or will this stack with the equipment's magic?” — 2002 July 15, Mark Green, “help in creating prestige class: Sharpshooter”, in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet):
- To start (something) over at an earlier point in a video game with some type of bonus or reward.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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