Many watched the film "The Prestige" with interest. This is a detective drama that reveals some of the nuances of the work of illusionists. One of the stunning stunts was taken into the title of the film. But what does prestige mean in a person's everyday life?
Origin of the term
Like most internationalisms, the word has Latin roots. Praestigium literally translates as "illusion" or "deception of the senses." It is worth noting that in European languages the meaning of the word "prestige" is slightly changed, and it is interpreted as "charm" (in French) or "authority" (in German, English). Thus, with the help of a simple balancing act, the term moved into the category of value judgments. Accordingly, synonyms for the word "prestige" are status, influence, weight (as the most frequently used in speech), as well as significance, attractiveness (used less often).
What is the general meaning of the word "prestige" in Russian? The interpretation is close to the European model, so you should not remember about illusions and deception of feelings. Prestige is the value and importance of the actions of an individual, his professional and social affiliation, established in a particular society. ATdifferent situations and social groups, there are some nuances in the use of this term.
Interpretation of the word in various fields of knowledge
Historical research allows us to give an accurate answer to the question of when the term first appeared in the speech of Russian citizens. This is the period of the aristocracy's passion for the French language and, of course, the war with Napoleon. In those distant times, it was believed that prestige is the influence of authority on the people around.
In psychology, the phenomenon of prestige is interpreted as a value judgment about someone or something based on the existing scale of values in society.
Sociology interprets the term as a value judgment about the qualities of an individual or the effectiveness of actions.
It is easy to see that, depending on the field of scientific knowledge that explains the meaning of prestige, there are some nuances of interpretation.
Application areas
The term has penetrated into all spheres of modern life. Opinions are often expressed about the prestige of international foundations and organizations. In terms of time and quality, one may encounter the former, certain or greater, enormous prestige. As you know, the government primarily cares about national and state prestige, and also does not forget about political, military and public.
At the level of the individual, one can speak of the existence of personal, moral, professional prestige.
From the above examples, one common feature can be distinguished: prestige is whatis considered valuable in a given period of time by a certain circle of people.
In fact, you just have to change the situation (for example, get on a desert island for an indefinite time without preparation, provisions), and the illusory nature of everything that was considered valuable and important immediately becomes apparent. That is, the word "prestige" shows its Latin meaning.
Since the term speaks of status, enterprising people did not ignore it: restaurateurs, advertisers, managers and others. As a result, a wide variety of establishments with the name "Prestige" appear. These are five-star hotels, and restaurants representing dishes of European and Asian cuisines, and real estate agencies, and travel companies. But this is not the limit.
Perfume appears, a brand of shoes, clothes with that name, even a line of cosmetics. And all this was created only in order to make money on human vanity, since they rarely save on this (just remember the lyrics of the song by Basilio the Cat and Alice the Fox).
Movie title
K. Priest's novel, filmed in 2006, is called "Prestige". Oddly enough, both the author and the director managed to fully reveal the multifaceted essence of this word. Once again the question is asked: "Is prestige the real state of affairs or what a person wants to see and believes in with all his being?" And since the main characters are illusionists, another, most likely rhetorical, question arises along the way: "If peopleadmire "deceit", so they want to be deceived?"
By the way, the trick "at the cost of life" is called - "Prestige". And the bulk of the audience came to look at him. It is safe to say that the term in question describes human nature, since wild animals do not have vanity and a desire for superiority at any cost.
