prestige 的词源

1650年代，“把戏，幻觉，欺骗”（这些意义现在已废弃），来自法语prestige（16世纪）“欺骗，欺诈，幻觉”（现代法语中意为“幻觉，魔术，魅力”），源自拉丁语praestigium“幻觉，欺骗”（参见prestigious）。

从1815年左右起，开始用作“关于个人优点或重要性的幻觉，一种 flattering 幻觉”的意义，因此，积极地表示“卓越、重要性或权威的声誉”，这些意义可能是从法语引入的，常常是指拿破仑：

When the same question was put to those who knew him and France best, they answered, 'that a peace dictated in France would have undone him ;'—'that his throne was founded on public opinion,' and 'that if the prestige,' for so they called it, 'of his glory were to be destroyed, the state of his affairs, and the character of the French people forbade him to expect that his power would long survive it.' ["Memoirs of Bonaparte's Deposition," Quarterly Review, Oct. 1814] 

当同样的问题被问及那些对他和法国了解的人时，他们回答说，“在法国强加的和平将会使他覆灭；——‘他的王位建立在公众舆论之上’，而且‘如果他的荣耀的prestige，他们如此称之，‘被破坏，那么他的事务状况和法国人民的性格都不允许他期待他的权力会长期存续。’”[《波拿巴废黜的回忆录》，《季刊评论》，1814年10月]