Today’s Words That Work: Ethos

Ethos (EE-thos) — from the Greek for “habit” — is the distinctive character spirit, and attitudes of a community, group, person, etc.

Example (as used by Liaquat Ahamed in a New York Times review of High Financier: The Lives and Times of Siegmund Warburg by Niall Ferguson): “Bankers like Warburg thought of themselves as rather like family doctors, whose job it was to get to know their clients well, understand their problems, and act in their best interest — a far cry from the ethos that dominates today’s Wall Street.”