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#79021 08/28/02 05:47 AM
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I've never thought of adjectives as propaganda! Could you expound a bit?
I did not say the adjectives were propaganda, but rather the noun "integrity", which, etymologically, means no more than completeness. It could be said of a complete..anything.
In Horace's time, it was a bit different, since "integer" had a complement:
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/h/horace/cl14.html


#79022 08/28/02 12:14 PM
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A standard google yields hundreds of citations, most of them seemingly serious. I just looked at the first page, but.

http://www.google.com/search?q=integritous&btnG=Google+Search


#79023 08/28/02 02:52 PM
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an acceptable adjectival form of the word "integrity" that uses the same root

Hi lori, pleasedta meetya.

I initially skim-read your question and misread it as a request for an adverbial form of "integrity". I quickly came to the conclusion that you wouldn't do anything with integrity except, well, everything. You can act with integrity, but that's about it.

Whilst I was barking up the wrong tree on the adverb front, I think my conclusion has some relevance to the adjectival form, and perhaps indicates why "integritous" (amusing as it is) jars somewhat.

Integrity is an all-or-nothing quality - regarding a particular person, it applies or it doesn't apply. In response to WW's question, I initially thought that "duplicitous" might be the opposite of "integritous", but having integrity is about much more than just being honest. It's also about being reliable, about completing what has been started (come what may), about keeping promises. So OK, you can stick all the adjectives together - honest, reliable, faithful - and that takes you quite close to a definition of integrity, but it's certainly nothing like 100%. There's something near-mystical (and yes, wsieb, wooly ) in integrity as wholeness and completeness.

IMHO an adjectival form is simply inappropriate for integrity, in that it could't meaningfully be used in the same way as [struggling for a term] standard, lower-level adjectives. For instance:
"Joe is more honest than Fred" is OK, but
"Joe is more integritous than Fred" isn't, as it implies degrees of integrity.

"Joe is (an) integritous (person)" has no advantage over "Joe has integrity" or "Joe acts with integrity". In fact the former has a notable disadvantage in that its meaning springs to mind less readily.

- Which is all a roundabout way of saying I don't see a need for an adjectival form of the word.




#79024 08/28/02 03:13 PM
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shona, I can buy your reasoning with regard to personage, but what about the citations for those odd coinages above; i.e., integrious candor, integritive conduct -- which is to say conducting oneself with integrity. why do you suppose those didn't stick?


#79025 08/28/02 03:40 PM
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Interesting insights, FishonaBike. However, I don't really see why we shouldn't have an adjectival form in a single word that means "having integrity" instead of making ourselves turn it into a longer sentence construction whenever a reference to a person's character/actions is made. It would be especially useful if one were speaking of someone having integrity among other qualities in a list format, as in, He was a friendly, sincere, compassionate, integritive (etc) man. This is certainly easier than having to convert the whole phrase or sentence to make the point.


#79026 08/28/02 04:00 PM
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We've touched on this before, tswum. One reason may be that these two words are just plain ugly.



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#79027 08/28/02 05:50 PM
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>just plain ugly.

if that were any criterion, we'd hardly be saddled with tinny words like recidivist and spittle.


#79028 08/28/02 06:00 PM
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Take lori's sentence:

"He was a
friendly, sincere, compassionate, integritive (etc) man."

And just make it:

He was a
friendly, sincere, compassionate man of integrity."


I don't espcially miss not having the adjective here--if it exists.


#79029 08/28/02 06:16 PM
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again, harking back to the citations, you have to write, e.g.:
To maintain [an integritive] conduct marked by integrity towards our fellow-creatures.


#79030 08/28/02 10:38 PM
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To maintain [an integritive] conduct marked by integrity towards our fellow-creatures.

Or perhaps just "To maintain [or act with] integrity towards our fellow-creatures", Nunc?


The original context looks a bit flowery to me.


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