morale

morale, discipline, esprit de corps although not always close synonyms, are comparable when they mean a condition or spirit which holds together a body of persons.

Morale usually applies to the qualities of an entire body of men (as an army or a regiment, a people, or a community) with respect especially to their courage and endurance under stress, but it sometimes may refer to an individual in his capacity of a member of a body held together by such qualities

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morale . . . describes the communal condition of mind and emotion, and it is incorrect to refer to the low or high morale of an individual, except in his or her relationship to the group— Times Lit. Sup.

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by military leadership we . . . mean ... the capacity to weld 50 to 250 men into a unit of high morale and lead them into battle— Psychiatry

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Discipline applies to the order maintained and observed by a body or an individual that is or has been subjected to training (as in uniform behavior, in control over the passions or other individualistic traits, or in military exercises) so that the whole moves under command as one and the individual thinks of himself only in relation to others

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troops noted for their discipline

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true discipline is intelligent obedience of each for the consequent effectiveness of all— Ageton

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books . . . written by men who have subjected themselves in a superior degree to intellectual discipline and culture— Dewey

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Esprit de corps especially applies to the spirit of loyalty that is manifest in a body (as a profession or a society) by jealous regard for the honor or the interests of the body as a whole or for fellow members as belonging to it; often esprit de corps implies a spirit that distinguishes one body and brings it into opposition to others

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among the professions noted for their esprit de corps, that of physician ranks high

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esprit de corps ... in each specialized part of the body politic, prompts measures to preserve the integrity of that part in opposition to other parts— Spencer

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though the development of a strong esprit de corps is most desirable, within a small and exclusive group it becomes dangerous . . . assumes the form of a closed club, the members of which can, in each other's eyes, do no wrong— Political Science Quarterly

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the inspired and faultless esprit de corps of her flesh and her bones and her blood; never were the features and the colors of a face in such serene and unassailable agreement, never had a skeleton been more singularly honored by the integument it wore— Stafford

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Analogous words: *vigor, spirit, drive: self-confidence, self-possession, assurance, *confidence: nerving, steeling (see ENCOURAGE)

Contrasted words: enervation (see corresponding verb at UNNERVE)