[mod.Fr., but in common use.] Self-love which is ready with its claims, and sensitive to causes of offence; good opinion of oneself, self-esteem.
1806. Aurora General Advertiser, 19 Oct., 2/2. Whether the story was the mere coinage of the agents to secure the commission, or that of their employers in a paroxysm of the amour propre, we neither know nor care.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xlviii. 365. When this unwonted burst of amour propre was thoroughly subdued.
1855. H. Spencer, Psychol. (1872), I. IV. viii. 487. A proof of power which cannot fail agreeably to excite the amour propre.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., iii. 35. His amour propre seems flattered.
