In my continuing quest to clarify the word "dignity", which I felt was the tone of the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, I turned to a giant dictionary in our home that has its own table.
Often, it also has its own cat.
This dictionary is more current than the 1933 Funk & Wagnall's I had looked in earlier. It is Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1956).
Dignity:
1. A state of worth or honor; nobleness or elevation of mind; excellence of character.
2. Elevation; nobility; grandeur.
3. Honorable place or rank; an elevated office, civil or ecclesiastical, giving a high rank in society: advancement, preferment, or the rank attached to it.
4. The state or quality calculated to inspire awe, respect or reverence; impressiveness; stateliness.
5. One high in rank or honor.
Again, I felt that this definition of "dignity" didn't coincide with my feeling about it.
This refers to someone who is given high rank or office, or who has qualities of nobleness, stateliness and grandeur. Not me, that's for sure!
I was especially concerned about the fourth definition: inspiring awe and reverence. To me, looking through those issues of the Monitor, there was no attempt to inspire awe or reverence in readers.
So I was still wondering: does this word "dignity" actually apply to the Monitor or to me?
