We would have lied if we had said that prestige concerns only our contemporaries. A person has always been preoccupied with how he looks in the eyes of other people. Schools and places of work have always served as some signals by which some people identified “their own people” and rejected “strangers”. The time has come to learn the true meaning of the word "prestige", enshrined in the explanatory dictionary. It’s also such a wonderful topic.
Value
The most important question regarding the subject matter is how conditional it is. Prestige, in general, exists somewhere other than human consciousness? It is easy to say that this, they say, is a convention, and it can be neglected. But let me, what about elite educational institutions, highly paid jobs that (both those and others) lead to a “golden country” of a high standard of living, because it’s so easy not to dismiss such facts, right? Yes that's right. Unfortunately, one can perceive prestige as a formality, a relic of bygone days, a phenomenon spun off from snobbery, but the fact remains: this convention rules the world. Therefore, it would be nice to know the meaning of the word “prestige”, enshrined in the explanatory dictionary: “Influence, respect that someone (or something) enjoys”.
It can be seen from the definition that both people and things (in the broad sense of the word) can fall under the rays of the searchlight of glory of the object of study. That is, communication with certain people can be prestigious, and it does not have to be the notorious “connections” or just fashion. We have already said about prestigious schools and universities. And of course, people involved in reputable educational institutions work hard not to drop the flag’s honor. So all this is not just. It is one thing to learn the lexical meaning of the word "prestige" and it is quite another to feel oneself in the circle of the elect.
Synonyms
While we were not dreaming at all, let's see how we can replace the beautiful word that got to our network today. So, the list of replacements:
- respect;
- influence;
- reputation;
- authority
- attractiveness.
There is only one small remark. The reader will probably remember that the term “reputation” differs from “reputation” in that the latter can be both bad and good, but the first word, as a rule, indicates only positive. Therefore, the term "reputation" did not appear on our list, because it is able to compromise the object of study.
Mandatory Conventions
Surely the reader still wants to know: is fame a well-deserved object of study or not? The question is difficult, because we do not have a time machine to see how the prestige of one or another social institution was formed. Now we can say that prestige is not an empty phrase for the reason that it acts as an additional filter for distributing people to certain unwritten strata. The case of Japan is especially indicative, where the fate of a person is determined at 5 years. Almost everything depends on how exactly the child will pass his first exams. And then almost automatically he gets into a certain kindergarten, then to school, to work, and that’s all. This amazing fact is told in her book “Tokyo Bride” by the wonderful writer Amelie Notomb. The work is worth reading to all those who are interested in a different outlook on things. Very instructive.