Because you're worrrth it ! (part 1)

Notions of worth, quality, value, decorum, decency, dignity, respect, reputation and honour have developed their own vocabulary; but the story is not straightforward.

We’ll begin with the Greek verb dokeo, meaning (in different contexts) to think, to imagine, to seem. At an early stage in the word’s semantics it came also to mean ‘to seem good’, and thus ‘to be of good repute’. The related Greek dogma meant an opinion - one that a person believed was sound, that seemed to be true.

Latin adopted the word in two distinct forms: doceo/doct-- = to teach (hence our derivatives ‘doctor’ and ‘docile‘); and deceo (meaning 'to seem right') - of which only the 3rd person was ever used: thus decet = ‘it is seemly, proper’ or decuit ‘it seemed right, proper’. The present participle of deceo (decens/decent--) meant, of course, decent and appropriate and seemly. Our E ‘decorum’ is actually the neuter singular of Latin decorus = graceful, proper, ‘becoming‘, and so means ‘the decent thing’. And there was a noun decus/decor-- (from which obviously our ‘decoration’ and French décor are derived’) meaning not only (lit or meta) ‘an ornament’, but also brightness, beauty, virtue, distinction, honour. Such are the origins of our terms decorum, decorous and decency.

But of course, the nature of all these standards will depend on the judges of behaviour, and their criteria. Who is to say that such and such an action or attitude is decent, right and proper, and that others are unworthy, wrong and improper ? Is it the Church (whatever we may mean by that), or the Bible, or the Koran, or politicians . . . ?

It is all too easy to forget that the pre-Christian Greeks and Romans - or at least an educated upper class of them - had extremely clear moral and ethical codes. Yes, it was the educated upper class that then defined morality, led by the philosophers and teachers. Which does not mean, of course, that all upper class Romans behaved honourably and all lower classes, including the slaves, behaved dishonourably. But education, whether at mother’s knee or at a school of philosophy helps people to perceive what the world is like, to understand how individuals can relate to it positively, and to develop strategies for personal and social life that enhance a community rather than damage it.

So ?

Because you’re worrrth it