I have noticed a few communication terms that seem to need attention. I am interested in the various perspectives on the word “pride” and the obvious tension related to it.
In context, pride is often related to and/or defined as: dignity, vanity, arrogance, superiority and elitism. Also, more positively: character, respect, worth, acknowledgment, appreciation, etc…
So What is this ambiguity? How is it that this word has come to be so double edged? I feel the need to clarify, to myself at least, how a word can simultaneously be positive and negative the world over.
Let’s start with some actual English definitions:
Princeton -
1. a feeling of self-respect and personal worth
2. satisfaction with your (or another’s) achievements; “he takes pride in his son’s success”
3. the trait of being spurred on by a dislike of falling below your standards
4. a group of lions
5. unreasonable and inordinate self-esteem (personified as one of the deadly sins)
6. be proud of; “He prides himself on making it into law school”
copiosa.org Theological Journal (google definition)
is the excessive love of one’s own excellence, for which Satan was damned. It is ordinarily accounted one of the seven Vices (capital sins)
Oxford Online:
1. (noun) a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from achievements, qualities, or possessions. 2 a cause or source of such a feeling. 3 consciousness of one’s own dignity. 4 the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself. 5 a group of lions forming a social unit.
2. (verb) (pride oneself on/upon) be especially proud of (a quality or skill).
3. (PHRASES) pride goes (or comes) before a fall proverb if you’re too self-important, something will happen to make you look foolish. pride of place the most prominent or important position.
- DERIVATIVES prideful adjective.
- ORIGIN Old English, related to PROUD.
the Concise Oxford Dictionary clarifies that “Proud” comes from late Old English ‘prud’, probably from Old French prude “brave, valiant” (11th century), from Latin prode “advantageous, profitable”, from prodesse “be useful”. Additionally, “having a high opinion of oneself” may reflect the Anglo-Saxon attitude toward the Norman knights who called themselves “proud”
Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus (american heritage)
(noun) amour-propre, ego, self-esteem, self-regard, self-respect, (verb) congratulate, plume, preen
As a note, other research also relates pride to vanty and narcisism.
vanity - amour propre: feelings of excessive pride (Princeton)
narcissism - self-love: an exceptional interest in and admiration for yourself; “self-love that shut out everyone else” (Princeton)
Evidence of pride that can easily be seen is abundant. Pride can be observed everywhere in each facet of it’s widely diverse definition. Commonly:
The religious vew of pride, casts a dark shadow on our subject. Cultures have defined themselves by their pride for all of recorded time and presumably beyond. Rather it be nationality or Racial, it’s observable. An individuals sense of pride has always been regarded as important. what sense of pride one has in life, experience, station, fortune, etc…
The confusion begings at a very basic level.
First, the language one speaks limits communication in defining one’s intent. English is a poor language, it would seem, to communicate the intent of this quite volitile subject. it’s appearant that we, in fact, mean differently than what we say when exclaiming “national pride” versus being a “proud man” or even expressing affection in saying “pride and joy”.
Secondly, propriety should be question to better understand the nature of pride. With each of the various aspects of pride; are any immoral or rather unethical? Can destructive / negative tendencies be attributed to any? Opinion among English/American has pointed to trends in pride being viewd favorably or not based on generations and civil standards. Is this accurate? can the nature of something so exciting be purely defined by the circumstances of the time and/or place?
Things are actually quite good, I’m a bit stressed but super elated to have so many cool things coming up. I get to see Heather on saturday, that should be a fun time for the hommies… thinking of going to the temple on Saturday morning (first time in several years) which is pretty exciting. I guess things are really just cool at the moment.