Other forms: respected, respects, respecting
To respect somebody is to treat them as someone whose worth you take seriously. Respect your elders, respect her decision, a respected surgeon.
The noun and the verb are equally common. Respect for is the pattern with the noun; with respect to is a formal way of saying about, and in this respect means in this particular way — a third sense that has nothing to do with esteem at all. That last one catches learners: in some respects means in some ways. Note the polite formula with respect, which in British usage almost always precedes flat disagreement, and with all due respect, which precedes it more bluntly still.
1verbrespectTo admire somebody and treat them as worth taking seriously.
“She is respected by people who disagree with her.”
2nounadmirationAdmiration for somebody or something.
“He has enormous respect for her judgement.”
3verbacceptTo accept and not interfere with something.
“Please respect the privacy of the family.”
4nounparticularA particular aspect or way.
“In that respect the two schemes are identical.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
respect is a way of regarding somebody.
Latin respectus meant a looking back — re-, back, plus specere, to look, the same verb behind spectator, inspect and suspect. To respect somebody is to look at them twice, which is a fair description of what the word asks for.
Latin
respectus
Old French
respect
Middle English
respect
English, today
respect
Built from
From Middle English respect, from Old French respect, from Latin respectus. From respect. From Middle English respect, from Old French respect, also respit (“respect, regard, consideration”), from Latin respectus (“a looking at, regard, respect”), perfect passive participle of respiciō (“look at, look back upon, respect”), from re- (“back”) + speciō (“to see”), equivalent to re + spect. a doublet of respite.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA