Word of the Day

Tuesday February 16, 2010

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probity [proh-bi-tee, prob-i]

noun

1. Integrity and uprightness; honesty; having strong moral principles.

• As Canadian governments extricate themselves from gaping deficits, they will need again to make the kind of tough choices that put us on the general path to fiscal probity in the 1990s.
  Daniel Schanen, "What's cooking in Canadian innovation?", The Globe and Mail, Feb 3, 2010
• Foreigners have bought many of the new United States Treasury bonds sold to finance this largess. Our children will have to service these bonds and ultimately redeem them. There is something quite untoward for people who went along with that glaring fiscal irresponsibility to now belatedly discover the virtue of fiscal probity.
  "How Much Will Health Reform Cost?", New York Times, Dec 15, 2009
• But even without corruption, supposing the probity of the Representative to be proof against the powerful motives by which it may be assailed, the will of the people is still constantly liable to be misrepresented.
  Andrew Jackson (1767 - 1845) The seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). State of the Union Addresses of Andrew Jackson (1829)

Origin of the Word

Probity, approximately 1514, derives from Middle French probite, from Latin probitas "uprightness, honesty," from probus "worthy, good."