Etiquette
Origin
Old French estiquette ). The primary sense in French is represented by English ticket n.1 (an adoption either of the word or the synonymous étiquet < estiquet ): in Old French the word chiefly denotes a soldier's billet. The transition from the sense ‘ticket, label’ to that of ‘prescribed routine’ presents no intrinsic difficulty, but its actual history in French is not very clear.
Definition
- 1: the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life
Description
Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group.
Like culture, etiquette is a word that has gradually grown to become plural, especially in a multi-ethnic society with many clashing expectations. Thus, it is now possible to refer to "an etiquette" or "a culture", realizing that these may not be universal. In Britain, the word "etiquette" has been described as the one word that aptly describes life during the reign of Queen Victoria.[1]
