gigmanity

Meaning

Noun

• Narrow concern about, and pride in, one's respectability; a petty sense of decorum.

Origin

• gigman + -ity, coined by Thomas Carlyle, derived from a definition once given in a court of justice by a witness who, having described a person as respectable, was asked by the judge in the case what he meant by the word, and replied, "One that keeps a gig."