different between decorum vs decorous

English

Etymology

From Latin dec?rum, neuter form of dec?rus (“proper, decent”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??k????m/
• Rhymes: -????m
• Hyphenation: de?co?rum

Noun

decorum (countable and uncountable, plural decorums)

1. (uncountable) Appropriate social behavior.

   Synonyms: decency, courtesy, propriety, etiquette

   • 2010, Pseudonymous Bosch (pseudonym; Raphael Simon), This Isn't What It Looks Like, ch. 4

     It was sort of a finishing school. You know, to teach proper social decorum and so on and so forth.
2. (countable) A convention of social behavior.

Related terms

Translations

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /de?ko?.rum/, [d???ko?????]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /de?ko.rum/, [d???k???um]

Etymology 1

Noun use of the neuter form of dec?rus (“becoming, fitting, proper”).

Noun

dec?rum n (genitive dec?r?); second declension

1. seemliness, propriety

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Descendants

References

• decorum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• decorum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Adjective

dec?rum

1. nominative neuter singular of dec?rus
2. accusative masculine singular of dec?rus
3. accusative neuter singular of dec?rus
4. vocative neuter singular of dec?rus

Noun

dec?rum

1. genitive plural of decor

English

Etymology

From Latin dec?rus (“seemly, becoming”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d?k???s/

Adjective

decorous (comparative more decorous, superlative most decorous)

1. Marked by proper behavior.
   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter V, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 3rd edition, London: J. Jonson, published 1796, section III, pages 219–220:

     The narrow path of truth and virtue inclines neither to the right nor left—it is a ?traightforward bu?ine?s, and they who are earne?tly pur?uing their road, may bound over many decorous prejudices, without leaving mode?ty behind.

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 61,^[1]

     There came a day when the round of decorous pleasures and solemn gaieties in which Mr. Jos Sedley’s family indulged was interrupted by an event which happens in most houses.

   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 43

     But who can fathom the subtleties of the human heart? Certainly not those who expect from it only decorous sentiments and normal emotions.

   • 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, Part One, Chapter 1^[2]

     The green eyes in the carefully sweet face were turbulent, willful, lusty with life, distinctly at variance with her decorous demeanor.

Antonyms

• indecorous

Related terms

Translations