Other forms: etiquettes
Etiquette is the accepted rules of polite behaviour. Court etiquette, a breach of etiquette, business etiquette.
It differs from manners in being local and arbitrary — manners are about consideration and etiquette is about the particular form it takes, which is why it varies so much between countries. The French word first meant a little label or ticket, then a list of court rules.
1nounetiquetteThe accepted rules of polite behaviour.
“In Japan, table etiquette says you should never leave your chopsticks standing upright in rice.”
etiquette is a code of behaviour.
French etiquette first meant a label or ticket, then the card of rules given at court.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)teyg- — to be sharp, to stab
Proto-Germanic
*stikaną
Frankish
*stekan
Middle French
estiquette — ticket, memorandum
French
étiquette — property, a little piece of paper, or a mark or title, affixed to a bag or bundle, expressing its contents, a label, ticket
English, today
etiquette
Built from
1740, from French étiquette (“property, a little piece of paper, or a mark or title, affixed to a bag or bundle, expressing its contents, a label, ticket”), from Middle French estiquette (“ticket, memorandum”), from the Old French - verb estechier (“to attach, stick”), (compare pcd estiquier (“to stick, pierce”)), from Frankish stekan, stikkjan (“to stick, pierce, sting”), from Proto-Germanic stikaną, stikōną, staikijaną (“to be sharp, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)teyg- (“to be sharp, to stab”). Akin to Old High German stehhan (“to stick, attach, nail”) (German stechen (“to stick”)), Old English stician (“to pierce, stab, be fastened”). The French Court of Louis XIV at Versailles used étiquettes literally “little cards” to remind courtiers to keep off of the grass and similar rules. More at stick (verb) and stitch. a doublet of ticket.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA