Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. (alternative form of amour propre English)
Wikipedia
Amour-propre ( French, " self-love") is a concept in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that esteem depends upon the opinion of others. Rousseau contrasts it with amour de soi, which also means "self-love", but which does not involve seeing oneself as others see one. According to Rousseau, amour de soi is more primitive and is compatible with wholeness and happiness, while amour-propre is an unnatural form of self-love that arose only with the appearance of society and individuals' consequent ability to compare themselves with one another. Rousseau thought that amour-propre was subject to corruption, thereby causing vice and misery.
The term amour-propre predates Rousseau and is found in the writings of Blaise Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Pierre Nicole and many others. For Pascal, Christianity was the only true remedy to this wretched state of man known as amour-propre, which for him is a direct consequence of the Fall, and in his writings the term generally refers to man's desire to satisfy his own needs and desires .
Usage examples of "amour-propre".
As far as the majority, able to protect itself, their main sensibilities were respected, especially the most sensitive, this one or that one, as the case might be, now the conscience which binds man to his religion, now that amour-propre on which honor depends, and now the habits which make man cling to customs, hereditary usages and outward observances.
All that amour-propre could demand was obtained, and they obtained more than could be prudently expected.
Whether she believed me, God knows, but she demanded particulars of a most intimate nature, inviting comparison between the Silk One and herself, and that inevitably led to another glorious thrashing-match which restored her amour-propre and left me in what I once heard a French naval officer describe as a condition of swoon.
Well, I could take the jolt to my amour-propre the more easily because while she'd been a prime ride and good company, she'd never had the magic that gets beneath your hide, like Yehonala or Lakshmi or Sonsee-array .