Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRO-PRI'E-TY, n. [Fr. proprieté; L. proprietas, from proprius.]

1. Property; peculiar or exclusive right of possession; ownership. [This primary sense of the word, as used by Locke, Milton, Dryden, &c. seems now to be nearly or wholly obsolete. See Property.]
2. Fitness; suitableness; appropriateness; consonance with established principles, rules or customs; justness; accuracy. Propriety of conduct, in a moral sense, consists in its conformity to the moral law; propriety of behavior, consists of conformity to the established rules of decorum; propriety in language, is correctness in the use of words and phrases, according to established usage, which constitutes the rule of speaking and writing.
3. Proper state. – Shak.