This post from a few days ago brought the phrase “respect your elders” to the fore, because the man presenting those ideas commands respect.  Not in the Napoleonic sense of command, but in the gentle, humble sense.  Not to mention the witty sense.  So, if there are variations on how to command, are there also variations on respect?  Of course. And they are just as surprising as some previous wordsmithing investigations have discovered for other well-worn words.

If you are musically inclined, you might go with Aretha’s definition.  It probably gets at the common usage definition that most North Americans of a certain age carry around with them.  But in OED territory “giving propers” can be seen in a different light with the first two entries for respect:

1. n. regard, gaze; visual attention.

2. v. to postpone, to suspend; to relieve temporarily.

Neither form of the word, especially the verb form, matches what we thought if we had Aretha’s (or Napoleon’s) definition in mind.  Nor is either a definition we had ever even heard of.  Yet when we gaze at those water-collecting and storage devices of old in the desert, we regard them in awe; and they do, temporarily, relieve us of our belief that innovation is only forward-looking.