honesty

EnglishEdit

 
the seed pods of honesty
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Wikispecies has information on:

Wikispecies

 
Commons
Commons has related media at:

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English honeste (honour, integrity), from Old French honesté (compare modern French honnêteté) (honest +‎ -y); the plant, from the visibility of the seeds through the translucent pods. Displaced native Old English sōþfæstnes.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

honesty (countable and uncountable, plural honesties)

  1. (uncountable, countable) The act, quality, or condition of being honest.
    academic / artistic / emotional / intellectual honesty
    brutal / devastating / searing honesty
    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
      There’s no trust,
      No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured,
      All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.
    • 1787, George Colman, Junior, Inkle and Yarico, London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, Act 2, p. 45,[1]
      O give me your plain dealing Fellows
      Who never from honesty shrink;
      Not thinking on all they shou’d tell us,
      But telling us all that they think.
    • 1965, George Steiner, “Dying is an Art”, in Language and Silence: Essays on Language, Literature and the Inhuman, New York: Atheneum, published 1986, page 295:
      To those who knew her and to the greatly enlarged circle who were electrified by her last poems and sudden death, she had come to signify the specific honesties and risks of the poet’s condition.
  2. (uncountable, countable, obsolete) Honor; decency, propriety.
  3. (uncountable, countable, obsolete) Chastity.
  4. (countable) Any of various crucifers in the genus Lunaria, several of which are grown as ornamentals, particularly Lunaria annua.

AntonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

ReferencesEdit

Middle EnglishEdit

NounEdit

honesty

  1. Alternative form of honeste (honour)