Admiration
Pronunciation
- US IPA: /ˌæd.mɚˈeɪʃ.ən/
- Rhymes: -eɪʃən
Origin
From French admiration < Latin admÄ«rÄtiÅ, from prefix ad- ("to, towards") + mÄ«rÅ ("I look at") + -ÄtiÅ. Compare the verb admire.
Full definition of admiration
Noun
admiration
(countable and uncountable; plural admirations)- A positive emotion including wonder and approbation; the regarding of another as being wonderfuladmiration of a war heroThey looked at the landscape in admiration.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 7, Chapter 1, pp. 4-5,http://name.umdl.umich.edu/004794856.0001.002For in this Instance, Life most exactly resembles the Stage, since it is often the same Person who represents the Villain and the Heroe; and he who engages your Admiration To-day, will probably attract your Contempt To-Morrow.
- 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume 1, Chapter 6,http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42671/42671-h/42671-h.htmA lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
- 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, New York: Harcout Brace Jovanovich, 1974, Chapter 3, p. 40,https://archive.org/details/burmesedaysnovel00orweDr. Veraswami had a passionate admiration for the English, which a thousand snubs from Englishmen had not shaken.
- 1939, John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath, Penguin, 1951, Chapter 19, p. 257,https://archive.org/details/grapesofwrath1976stei... in the towns, the storekeepers hated them because they had no money to spend. There is no shorter path to a storekeeper’s contempt, and all his admirations are exactly opposite. The town men, little bankers, hated Okies because there was nothing to gain from them.
- (obsolete) Wondering or questioning (without any particular positive or negative attitude to the subject).
- circa 1605 William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act I, Scene 4,http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=kinglear&Act=1&Scene=4&Scope=sceneLear. Your name, fair gentlewoman?Goneril. This admiration, sir, is much o’ th’ savourOf other your new pranks.
- 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Revelation 17:6,https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+17&version=KJVAnd I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
- 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 3, lines 270-272,https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost_(1674)/Book_III... Admiration seizedAll Heaven, what this might mean, and whither tend,Wondering;
- (obsolete) Cause of admiration; something to excite wonder, or pleased surprise.
- circa 1602 William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act II, Scene 1,http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=allswell&Act=2&Scene=1&Scope=sceneNow, good Lafeu,Bring in the admiration; that we with theeMay spend our wonder too, or take off thineBy wondering how thou took’st it.