esteem

Alternative forms

• æsteem (archaic)
• esteeme (obsolete)

Etymology

First at end of 16th century; borrowed from Middle French estimer, borrowed from Latin aestimō.

See estimate and aim, an older word, partly a doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈstiːm/, /əˈstiːm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

esteem (usually uncountable, plural esteems)

1. Assessment, estimation, or regard; especially; favourable estimation or regard.

   We hold her in high esteem.

Verb

esteem (third-person singular simple present esteems, present participle esteeming, simple past and past participle esteemed)

1. To set a high value on; to regard with respect or reverence.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 36:19:

     Will he esteem thy riches?

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

     You talk kindlier: we esteem you for it.

2. To regard something as valuable; to prize.
3. To look upon something in a particular way.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 32:15:

     Then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

   • 1535, Edmund Bonner, De vera obedientia by Stephen Gardiner (Preface)

     Thou shouldest (gentle reader) esteem his censure and authority to be of the more weighty credence.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 9, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     Famous men, whose scientific attainments were esteemed hardly less than supernatural.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. V, The English”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker):

     And greatly do I respect the solid character, — a blockhead, thou wilt say; yes, but a well-conditioned blockhead, and the best-conditioned, — who esteems all ‘Customs once solemnly acknowledged’ to be ultimate, divine, and the rule for a man to walk by, nothing doubting, not inquiring farther.

4. (dated) To judge; to estimate; to appraise

   The Earth, which I esteem unable to reflect the rays of the Sun.

Derived terms

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “esteem”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Further reading

• “esteem”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “esteem”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Mestee, mestee

Verb

esteem

1. (reintegrationist norm, less recommended) inflection of estear:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative