/ ɪˈstiːm; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
[ U ] ( formal ) great respect and admiration; a good opinion of sb :
She is held in high esteem by her colleagues.
Please accept this small gift as a token of our esteem.
—see also self-esteem
■ verb ( formal ) (not used in the progressive tenses)
1.
[ vn ] [ usually passive ] to respect and admire sb/sth very much :
a highly esteemed scientist
2.
[ vn - n ] ( old-fashioned , formal ) to think of sb/sth in a particular way :
She was esteemed the perfect novelist.
••
WORD ORIGIN
Middle English (as a noun in the sense worth, reputation ): from Old French estime (noun), estimer (verb), from Latin aestimare to estimate. The verb was originally in the Latin sense, also appraise (compare with estimate ), used figuratively to mean assess the merit of . Current senses date from the 16th cent.