prestige

Etymology

From French prestige (“illusion, fascination, enchantment, prestige”), from Latin praestīgium (“a delusion, an illusion”). Despite the phonetic similarities and the old meaning of “delusion, illusion, trick”, the word has a different root than prestidigitator (“conjurer”) and prestidigitation.

noun

1. The quality of how good the reputation of something or someone is, how favourably something or someone is regarded.
   Oxford has a university of very high prestige.
2. (obsolete, often preceded by "the") Delusion; illusion; trick.
   That faith which, we are told, was founded on a rock, impregnable to the assaults of men and demons; to the sophisms of infidelity, and the prestiges of imposture! 1811, William Warburton, edited by Richard Hurd, The works of the Right Reverend William Warburton, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester, volume the ninth, London: Luke Hansard & Sons, →OCLC, page 121

adj

1. (sociolinguistics, of a linguistic form) Regarded as relatively prestigious; often, considered the standard language or language variety, or a part of such a variety.
   Furthermore there is in each area a well recognized standard, known by a single name, which although often linguistically distinct from local dialects, has served as the prestige form for some time. 1971, John Gumperz, “Formal and informal standards in Hindi regional language area”, in Language in Social Groups, Stanford: Stanford University Press, page 48
   The 3rd person plural -ą ending is phonetically [ow̃] or [om], depending on the dialect. However, [ow̃] is the prestige form. 1981, Jerzy Rubach, Cyclic Phonology and Palatalization in Polish and English, Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, →OCLC, page 57

verb

1. (video games) To start over at an earlier point in a video game with some type of bonus or reward.
   This seriously depends on the prerequisites, but most chars will already have a +1 bow by the time they're thinking of prestiging - or will this stack with the equipment's magic? 15 July 2002, Mark Green, “help in creating prestige class: Sharpshooter”, in rec.games.frp.dnd (Usenet)
   I'm going to try to stop and move onto a different game once I've prestiged, but the credits/equipment buying arrangement will make prestiging much less of a crippling shock than in previous games, so I may well be stuck playing it for a long time to come. 3 December 2010, Chris Stevens, “PWG 20101203 - The deja double”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet)
   However, Treyarch crafts a narrative of leveling up when a player attempts to prestige. The player is stripped of most un-lockable game features and must re-earn them with the ability to repeat this process 15 times. Prestiging allows the empty narrative of online multiplayer first person shooters to continue on a much grander scale. 2013, Brent Kice, “Perceptions of Control: Open World Formats v. Online Multiplayer First Person Shooters”, in Matthew Wysocki, editor, Ctrl-Alt-Play: Essays on Control in Video Gaming, McFarland & Company, page 154
   Reached level 50 and prestiged which I have never had the inclination to do in any game before. 1 April 2014, Man of Kent, “Monday, innit”, in uk.games.video.misc (Usenet)
   Prestiging itself is a concept popularized by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, where players can reset their in-game progress after reaching the maximum experience level, and receive a cosmetic token in exchange. 2018, Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci, Practical Game Design, Packt, page 420