gracious
English
Alternative forms
- gratious (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English gracious, from Old French gracieus, from Latin gratiosus, from gratia (“esteem, favor”). See grace. Displaced native Old English hold (“gracious”). Doublet of gracioso and grazioso.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɡɹeɪʃəs/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪʃəs
Adjective
gracious (comparative more gracious, superlative most gracious)
- kind and warmly courteous
- tactful
- compassionate
- indulgent, charming and graceful
- elegant and with good taste
- benignant
- full of grace
- magnanimous, without arrogance or complaint, benevolently declining to raise controversy or insist on possible prerogatives.
- The actress's gracious acceptance of being named only in the end credits allowed her character's appearance in the episode to remain a surprise.
Derived terms
Translations
kind and warmly courteous
|
tactful — see also tactful
|
compassionate — see also compassionate
indulgent — see also indulgent
|
elegant and with good taste — see also elegant
benignant — see also benignant
full of grace
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
See also
Synonyms
- (expression of surprise): See Thesaurus:wow
Middle English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡraːsiˈuːs/, /ɡraːˈsjuːs/, /ˈɡraːsius/, /ˈɡraːsjus/, /ˈɡraːsjəs/
Adjective
gracious (plural and weak singular graciouse, comparative graciouser, superlative graciousest)
- kind, gracious, polite
- forgiving, relenting (used mainly positively)
- godly, Christian, involving the graciousness of God
- a. 1450, The Creation and the Fall of Lucifer in The York Plays, as recorded c. 1463–1477 in British Museum MS. Additional 35290:
- I am gracyus and grete, god withoutyn begynnyng, / I am maker vnmade, all mighte es in me, / I am lyfe and way vnto welth-wynnyng, / I am formaste and fyrste, als I byd sall it be.
- I am gracious and great, God without beginning, / I am the unmade maker—all might is in me, / I am life and the way to the attainment of salvation, / I am foremost and first—as I command, it shall be.
- a. 1450, The Creation and the Fall of Lucifer in The York Plays, as recorded c. 1463–1477 in British Museum MS. Additional 35290:
- lucky, glad; bestowed with good fortune
- enjoyable, nice, pleasing
- good-looking; pleasing to the eye
- obedient, respectworthy
- (rare) useful, beneficious
Derived terms
References
- “grāciǒus, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-14.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.