honest (adj.)

c. 1200, onur, "glory, renown, fame earned," from Anglo-French honour, Old French onor, honor "honor, dignity, distinction, position; victory, triumph" (Modern French honneur), from Latin honorem (nominative honos, the form used by Cicero, but later honor) "honor, dignity, office, reputation," which is of unknown origin.

The initial h- (as in honest) is a Latinate correction that began to be made in early Old French, representing a sound that had vanished before the word came to English. Until 17c., honour and honor were equally frequent; the former spelling became preferred in England, the latter in the U.S. by influence of Noah Webster.

It is attested from c. 1300 as "action of honoring or paying respect to; act or gesture displaying reverence or esteem; state or condition inspiring respect; nobleness of character or manners; high station or rank; a mark of respect or esteem; a source of glory, a cause of good reputation."

The meaning "feminine purity, a woman's chastity" is attested from late 14c. The meaning "one's personal title to high respect or esteem" is from 1540s. In Middle English, it also could mean "splendor, beauty; excellence."

Honor roll in the scholastic sense attested by 1872. Bartlett ("Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848) reports honor bright! as "A protestation of honor among the vulgar."

mid-14c., from honest + -ly (2). As an intensifier or exclamation, from 1898.

early 14c., "splendor, honor; elegance," later "honorable position; propriety of behavior, good manners; virginity, chastity" (late 14c.), from Old French oneste, honesté "respectability, decency, honorable action" (12c., Modern French uses the variant honnêteté, as if from Latin *honestitatem), from Latin honestatem (nominative honestas) "honor received from others; reputation, character;" figuratively "uprightness, probity, integrity, virtue," from honestus (see honest). Meaning "moral purity, uprightness, virtue, justness" is from c. 1400; in English, the word originally had more to do with honor than honest.