Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Conformity to conventional standards of behavior or morality.
  • noun Socially correct usages or behaviors.
  • noun The quality of being proper; appropriateness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Peculiar or exclusive right of possession; ownership; possession; property.
  • noun That which is proper or peculiar; property; peculiarity.
  • noun An estate; a holding.
  • noun Suitableness to an acknowledged or correct standard or rule; consonance with established principles, rules, or customs; fitness; justness; correctness.
  • noun Individuality; particular or proper state.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete Individual right to hold property; ownership by personal title; property.
  • noun obsolete That which is proper or peculiar; an inherent property or quality; peculiarity.
  • noun The quality or state of being proper; suitableness to an acknowledged or correct standard or rule; consonance with established principles, rules, or customs; fitness; appropriateness

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun correctness in behaviour and morals
  • noun fitness; the quality of being appropriate

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun correct or appropriate behavior

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English propriete, particular character, ownership, from Old French; see property.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined between 1425 and 1475 from late Middle English propriete ("ownership"), from Middle French proprieté, from Latin proprietās

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Examples

  • The passion to know, in the face of censure and propriety, is what advances our understanding of the world.

    Bonk by Mary Roach: Book summary 2010

  • Blogathon actions are unusual, and the best way to ensure propriety is to do it through their system.

    Monday! fjm 2009

  • Now propriety is another matter, a matter of judgment.

    NASA's Jim Hansen Engages In Personal Foreign Policy - NASA Watch 2009

  • Victorian propriety is an important element of the story, the atmosphere to be upended over and over by slapstick action and sudden death.

    Archive 2008-02-01 2008

  • His sense of propriety is widely shared: Few gay parties occur in the country during the holy month.

    The Kingdom in the Closet 2007

  • His sense of propriety is widely shared: Few gay parties occur in the country during the holy month.

    The Kingdom in the Closet 2007

  • The Scotsman reports (here) on how a second SNP Minister has been smelt out for having a large shareholding that, to most people with any sense of propriety, is a clear potential conflict of interest with his position as minister.

    Archive 2007-09-16 2007

  • It should always have a slight Man Men air about it, and holding itself to outdated standards of propriety is a fine way to accomplish that.

    NYTimes: Not Fucked Up 2007

  • The Scotsman reports (here) on how a second SNP Minister has been smelt out for having a large shareholding that, to most people with any sense of propriety, is a clear potential conflict of interest with his position as minister.

    Second SNP Minister in Shares Scandal 2007

  • Its author (possibly Nassau Senior or Southey himself) purports to trace the history of injunctions back to the 18th century, when the Court of Chancery took over issues of literary propriety from the common law courts.

    A Brief Publication History of _Wat Tyler_ 2007

Comments

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  • "I find such a pleasure, sir, in obeying your commands, that I take care to observe them without ever debating their propriety."

    Goldsmith, She Stoops, III

    January 11, 2007