gracious
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- gratious (obsolete)
Etymology edit
From Middle English gracious, from Old French gracieus, from Latin gratiosus, from gratia (“esteem, favor”). See grace. Displaced native Old English hold (“gracious”). Doublet of gracioso and grazioso.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
gracious (comparative more gracious, superlative most gracious)
- kind and warmly courteous
- tactful
- compassionate
- indulgent, charming and graceful
- elegant and with good taste
- benignant
- full of grace
- magnanimous, without arrogance or complaint, benevolently declining to raise controversy or insist on possible prerogatives.
- The actress's gracious acceptance of being named only in the end credits allowed her character's appearance in the episode to remain a surprise.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
kind and warmly courteous
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tactful — see also tactful
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compassionate — see also compassionate
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indulgent — see also indulgent
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elegant and with good taste — see also elegant
benignant — see also benignant
full of grace
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also edit
Interjection edit
gracious
Synonyms edit
- (expression of surprise): See Thesaurus:wow
Derived terms edit
Middle English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Old French gracious, from Latin grātiōsus. Equivalent to grace + -ous.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
gracious (plural and weak singular graciouse, comparative graciouser, superlative graciousest)
- kind, gracious, polite
- forgiving, relenting (used mainly positively)
- godly, Christian, involving the graciousness of God
- a. 1450, The Creation and the Fall of Lucifer in The York Plays, as recorded c. 1463–1477 in British Museum MS. Additional 35290:
- I am gracyus and grete, god withoutyn begynnyng, / I am maker vnmade, all mighte es in me, / I am lyfe and way vnto welth-wynnyng, / I am formaste and fyrste, als I byd sall it be.
- I am gracious and great, God without beginning, / I am the unmade maker—all might is in me, / I am life and the way to the attainment of salvation, / I am foremost and first—as I command, it shall be.
- a. 1450, The Creation and the Fall of Lucifer in The York Plays, as recorded c. 1463–1477 in British Museum MS. Additional 35290:
- lucky, glad; bestowed with good fortune
- enjoyable, nice, pleasing
- good-looking; pleasing to the eye
- obedient, respectworthy
- (rare) useful, beneficious
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
References edit
- “grāciǒus, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-14.