Modest means quiet about your own achievements. A modest man, modest about her work, too modest by half.
It also means small or moderate in size: a modest house, a modest increase, modest means. That second sense is much the commoner in writing about money, where modest is a polite way of saying not much. Of dress it means covering the body, which is a live sense in religious contexts. Note modesty, which carries all three; and false modesty, meaning modesty put on for effect.
1adjectivemodestQuiet about your own achievements.
“He was modest about it to the point of being unhelpful.”
synonyms: unassuming, self-effacing
2adjectivesmallSmall or moderate in size.
“There was a modest increase and everybody called it a rise.”
modest is a quality of restraint.
Latin modestus means keeping within measure, from modus, a measure — the same root as mode, moderate and model. Modesty is literally staying within bounds, which explains why the word covers both behaviour and size.
Proto-Indo-European
*med-
Latin
modestus
Middle French
modeste
English, today
modest
From Middle French modeste, from Latin modestus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA