Meaning

noun the quality of being worthy of esteem or respect

noun formality in bearing and appearance

noun high office or rank or station

originInherited from Middle English dignyte, from Old French dignité, from Latin dignitās (“worthiness, merit, dignity, grandeur, authority, rank, office”), from dignus (“worthy, appropriate”), from Proto-Italic *degnos, from Proto-Indo-European *dḱ-nos, from *deḱ- (“to take”). See also decus (“honor, esteem”) and decet (“it is fitting”). Cognate to deign. Doublet of dainty. In this sense, displaced…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0