Good name, the credit, honor or character which is derived from a favorable public opinion or esteem.
A valuable species of property or right.
Character by report, in a good or bad sense.

With the loss of reputation, a one loses most of the enjoyments of life.
The best evidence of reputation is one's whole life.

See: Fallen From Grace

Everything 2 (E2) calls the net + and - votes on a writeup to be reputation. See also: rep, XP, Voting/Experience System

Reputation is something of an ephemeral issue.

If you were a doyenne in the court of doyennes, you'd be concerned with your reputation amongst the courtiers, and the sorts of things which they uphold or look down on; just as, if you were a Midwest housewife church-leader, you'd want to be seen as a paragon of that community's values; and if you were a straight-up AVN pornstar, you'd want fellow pornstars to think you had the thoughts and acts appropriate for that community.

It's all perspective. And in every community, maintaining a reputation is some amount of work, varying by degree and by how much you care what others think (and how much you'd need to change your own being to suit them).

I, for example, am a vegetarian in a world of weekend barbecue fanatics, and a nudist (to the extent possible) in a world where wearing pants is so the norm that going without is a shock. To my thinking, that's a very natural activity, so if others think differently of me for it, that's a problem in their heads, not mine. And that's really all of what "reputation" is anyway. Something other people who have their own problems have in their heads about you. But at the end of the day the thing which matters most is being satisfied to live within your own skin.

Rep`u*ta"tion (-t?"sh?n), n. [F. r'eputation, L. reputatio a reckoning, consideration. See Repute, v. t.]

1.

The estimation in which one is held; character in public opinion; the character attributed to a person, thing, or action; repute.

The best evidence of reputation is a man's whole life. Ames.

2. Law

The character imputed to a person in the community in which he lives. It is admissible in evidence when he puts his character in issue, or when such reputation is otherwise part of the issue of a case.

3.

Specifically: Good reputation; favorable regard; public esteem; general credit; good name.

I see my reputation is at stake. Shak.

The security of his reputation or good name. Blackstone.

4.

Account; value.

[Obs.]

Chaucer.

[/Christ] made himself of no reputation. Phil. ii. 7.

Syn. -- Credit; repute; regard; estimation; esteem; honor; fame. See the Note under Character.

 

© Webster 1913.

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