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Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century, it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility. [1] The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but originally meant considering one's own capabilities and that God's help was ...
Vanitas (Latin for ' vanity ', in this context meaning pointlessness, or futility, not to be confused with the other definition of vanity) is a genre of art which uses symbolism to show the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, and thus the vanity of ambition and all worldly desires.
A bonfire of the vanities (Italian: falò delle vanità) is a burning of objects condemned by religious authorities as occasions of sin.The phrase itself usually refers to the bonfire of 7 February 1497, when supporters of the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola collected and burned thousands of objects such as cosmetics, art, and books in the public square of Florence, Italy, on the occasion ...
Pride is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as "reasonable self-esteem " or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". [1] The Oxford dictionary defines it as "the quality of having an excessively high opinion of oneself or one's own importance." [2] Pride may be related to one's own abilities or achievements, positive characteristics of ...
A vanity plate or personalized plate (United States and Canada); prestige plate, private number plate, cherished plate or personalised registration (United Kingdom); personalised plate (Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom) or custom plate (Canada, Australia and New Zealand) is a special type of vehicle registration plate on an automobile ...
Vanity sizing. Vanity sizing, or size inflation, is the phenomenon of ready-to-wear clothing of the same nominal size becoming bigger in physical size over time. [1][2][3] This has been documented primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. [4] The use of US standard clothing sizes by manufacturers as the official guidelines for ...
The Bonfire of the Vanities. The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, and British expatriate journalist ...
This page is one of a series listing English translations of notable Latin phrases, such as veni, vidi, vici and et cetera. Some of the phrases are themselves translations of Greek phrases, as ancient Greek rhetoric and literature started centuries before the beginning of Latin literature in ancient Rome. [1] This list covers the letter V.