Prestige  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem, though in earlier usage, it meant showiness. It also referred to the final portion of a magic trick, typically a showy flourish.

Prestige may also refer to:

• Prestige Records, American record label
• Prestige (Daddy Yankee album), a 2012 album by Daddy Yankee
• The Prestige, 1995 novel by Christopher Priest
• The Prestige (film), a 2006 American film directed by Christopher Nolan
• Prestige (1932 film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett

Etymology

From French prestige (“illusion, fascination, enchantment, prestige”)

, from Latin praestigium (“a delusion, an illusion”) , from praestinguere (“to obscure, extinguish”) , from prae (“before”) + stinguere (“to extinguish”); or , from praestringere (“to blind; to blindfold; to dazzle or confuse someone”) , from prae (“before”) + stringere (“to press, tighten, compress”).

Note: despite the phonetic similarities and prestige's old meaning of "delusion, illusion, trick", the word has a different root than prestidigitator and prestidigitation.