pride#

pride n Pride, vanity, vainglory are comparable when they mean the quality or the feeling of a person who is keenly or excessively aware of his own excellence or superiority. The same distinctions in implications and connotations are found in their corresponding adjectives proud, vain, vainglorious

Pride and proud may imply either justified or unjustified self-esteem, insofar as what one regards as a merit or a superiority is real or imagined, and insofar as the feeling manifests itself either in proper self-respect and distaste for what is beneath one's standards or in inordinate and arrogant conceit. In the "unjustified" interpretation, pride is a sin or vice and the antithesis of humility

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those that walk in pride he is able to abase— Dan 4:37

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pride in the sense of contemning others less gifted than herself deserves the two lowest circles of a vulgar woman's Inferno— Holmes

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he had gone on for years deceiving himself—too proud, too self-conscious, maybe just too stupid to realize it— Styron

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but in the "justified" interpretation, pride is a virtue or at least a highly pardonable, even commendable, feeling or quality that is the antithesis of shame and that spurs one to equal or better one's best or gives one rightful gratification

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take pride in our work

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proud of his skill in fencing

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the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom— Lincoln

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she might grieve . . . but she was gallant, she was proud; she would not whine— Sackville— West

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Vanity and vain imply an excessive desire to win the notice, approval, or praise of others; both connote an interest centered on oneself and often suggest a concentration on things of little or no importance relatively

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had . . . not the gay, tail-spreading peacock vanity of his son— Carlyle

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he was conceited and vain, and he was endlessly trying to enjoy what he thought he appeared to be in the eyes of others— Farrell

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looked only at himself; he had nothing but a small and worthless mortification, which was only wounded vanity— Deland

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Vainglory and vainglorious imply excessive pride which manifests itself in boastfulness and arrogant display of one's power, skill, or influence

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vainglorious boastings— Irving

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American historians . . . with much of the vainglorious pedantry that Irving burlesqued— Brooks

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have blockaded their minds behind . . . walls of nationalistic egoism and vainglory, symptoms of collective paranoia— Yale Review

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Analogous words: arrogance, haughtiness, superciliousness, disdainfulness or disdain, insolence (see corresponding adjectives at PROUD): complacency, smugness, priggishness (see corresponding adjectives at COMPLACENT): self- esteem, self-love, egotism, egoism, *conceit

Antonyms: humility: shame

pride vb Pride, plume, pique, preen are all reflexive verbs meaning to congratulate oneself because of something one is, has, or has done or achieved.

Pride usually implies a taking credit to oneself on or upon something that redounds to one's honor or gives just cause for pride in oneself

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he prides himself on his ancestry

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Mark prided himself upon maintaining outwardly a demeanor that showed not the least trace of overstrung nerves— Mackenzie

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he prided himself on his part in the new century, but he resisted the installation of a telephone— Frank

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Plume adds to pride the implication of a display of vanity or of a more obvious exhibition of one's gratification; the term usually suggests less justification than does pride

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the Viceroy plumed himself on the way in which he had instilled notions of reticence into his staff— Kipling

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Cicero plumed himself on flirting with disreputable actresses— Buchan

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authors who plume themselves on writing history with "popular appeal"— L. B. Wright

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Pique (see also PROVOKE 1) differs from plume chiefly in carrying a hint of stirred-up pride or satisfaction; usually the cause of the pride is a special accomplishment

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every Italian or Frenchman of any rank piques himself on speaking his own tongue correctly— Walpole

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"Pride," observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, "is a very common failing, I believe"— Austen

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Preen is occasionally used in place of plume, sometimes with a slight suggestion of adorning oneself with one's virtues

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he preened himself upon his sapience— Lowell

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men have admired, in theory, feminine virtue and preened themselves on the fear they aroused in the timid sex— Cunning ton

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Analogous words: *boast, brag, vaunt, crow, gasconade: congratulate, *felicitate