Ceremony

Forms: 4 ceri-, cery-, ceremoyn(e, cerymone, pl. -nis; 4–5 sermony(e, -ie, serimonie, 4–6 ceri-, cery-, sery-, seri-, seremony(e, -ie, 5 ceri-, cery-, serymonij, 6 cerimonie, 6–7 ceremonye, -ie, 6– ceremony, pl. -ies; earlier -yes. (Sc. 6 seremons). [ME. cerymonye, sery-, prob. a. OF. cerymonie, serimonie, ? cerimoine, ad. L. cærimōnia sacredness, sanctity; awe, reverence; exhibition of reverence or veneration, religious rite, ceremony: for conjectures as to derivation of which see the Lat. Dicts. and Skeat. The ME. forms in -moyne prob. represent Anglo-Fr. variants: cf. the F. ending -moin from L. -mōnium, and pairs like glorie, gloire, etc., and see -MONY. In med.L. often spelt cere-; since 16th c. this spelling has been established in Fr. and Eng.]

  1.  An outward rite or observance, religious or held sacred; the performance of some solemn act according to prescribed form; a solemnity.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 431. And cerimonyes of y^e olde lawe, betere þan þes, ben tauht to be left bi lore of Poul. Ibid. (1382), Bible, Gen. xxvi. 5. That Abraham … wolde holde my seremonyes and lawis. Ibid., Deut. iv. 8. Ceremoyns and ryȝtwis domis.

1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys (1835), 11. It was doon in ful solemne wyse And with many a cerymonye.

c. 1535.  Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1067. The ceremonyes of the Masse.

1549.  Compl. Scot., Ded. 7. Ensens to mak the seremons of his sacrefeis.

1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 55. Some Satire … Not sorting with a nuptiall ceremonie.

1611.  Bible, Numb. ix. 3. According to all the ceremonies thereof shall ye keepe it.

1641.  ‘Smectymnuus,’ Vind. Answ., § 13. 163. It is ordinarily said, No Ceremony, no Bishop. But it was never said, No Ceremony, no Presbyter.

1710.  Answ. Sacheverell’s Serm., 7. Old antiquated Ceremonies.

1770.  Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 161/2. The vestals remained a considerable time at Cære … and hence those rites were called Ceremonies.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wks. (Bohn), II. 49. They repeated the ceremonies of the eleventh century in the coronation of the present Queen.

  b.  disparagingly. A rite or observance regarded as merely formal or external; an empty form. † Sometimes regarded as symbolic or typical.

a. 1533.  Frith, Purgatory, II. Wks. (1573), 38. Shal we become Jewes and go backe to the shadow and ceremonie, sith we haue the body and signification which is Christ?

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iii. II. (1676), 197/1. It is non ens, a meer flash, a ceremony, a toy, a thing of nought.

1631.  J. Burges, Answ. Rejoined, 29. A Ceremony is an outward action designed or purposely observed and done in reference to some other thing to the substance whereof it doth not belong.

1693.  Col. Rec. Penn., I. 420. There is no obligation to use the seal. It is onlie a Ceremonie.

1841.  Thirlwall, Greece (1844), VIII. lxii. 141. The custom had probably been long a mere ceremony.

  c.  loosely. Applied to a thing done in a formal or ceremonious way; a stately formality.

1802.  Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. i. 5. Thank God, the ceremony of dinner is over.

  2.  A formal act or observance, expressive of deference or respect to superiors in rank, or established by custom in social intercourse; a usage of courtesy, politeness or civility.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Squire’s T., 507. This god of loue … Doeth so hise cerymonyes and obeisances.

1528.  More, Heresyes, I. Wks. 107/2. Without any strayning of curtesie, whereof the serimonyes in disputacion marreth much of the matter.

1597–8.  Bacon, Ess. Cerem. & Resp. (Arb.), 26/1. Ceremonies … be not to bee omitted to straungers and strange natures.

1778.  Miss Burney, Evelina, vii. I seldom use the ceremony of waiting for answers.

  3.  (without a or pl.) Formal observances or usages collectively, or as an order of things: a. in reference to matters of religion or state: Performance of rites, ceremonial observance.

1759.  Robertson, Hist. Scot., I. IV. 266. Intrusted with matters of mere ceremony alone.

1771.  Junius Lett., lv. 273. A true and hearty christian, in substance, not in ceremony.

1836.  Hor. Smith, Tin Trump. (1876), 76. Ceremony … all that is considered necessary by many in religion and friendship.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, xiii. Wks. (Bohn), II. 97. The national temperament deeply enjoys the unbroken order and tradition of its church; the liturgy, ceremony, architecture.

  b.  Precise observance of conventional forms of deference or respect; formality, ceremoniousness. Without ceremony: off-hand, unceremoniously. To stand upon ceremony: to insist upon the punctilious observances of formalities or refuse to go on without them. (Cf. Shakespeare’s use in 5.)

1603.  Jas. I., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. 243, III. 78. Not with that ceremonie as towardis straingeris.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., III. iv. 36. The sawce to meate is Ceremony.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 21, ¶ 8. Without further Ceremony, I will go on to relate a singular Adventure.

1798.  Jane Austen, Northang. Abb., viii. I never stand upon ceremony with such people.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, II. vi. 113. Without ceremony the two young ladies ran out of the room.

1866.  G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxv. (1878), 436. I was shown with much ceremony … into the presence of two ladies.

  † c.  Ceremonious respect or regard.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 264. The Romans had the Equestrial Statues in great reverence and ceremony.

1675.  trans. Machiavelli’s Wks. (1675), 255. Oliveretto having paid his ceremony fell in with the rest.

  d.  Ceremonial display, pomp, state. arch.

1599.  Shaks., Hen. V., IV. i. 256. What haue Kings, that Priuates haue not too, Saue ceremonie.

1710.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4742/2. He was brought in Ceremony from the Princess-Royal’s Apartment.

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 297. His dress a suit of fray’d magnificence, Once fit for feasts of ceremony.

  † 4.  concr. An external accessory or symbolical ‘attribute’ of worship, state or pomp. Obs.

1581.  Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 47. Æneas … carrying away his religious ceremonies.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., I. i. 70. Disrobe the Images If you do finde them deckt with Ceremonies. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., II. ii. 59. No ceremony that to great ones longs … Become them with one halfe so good a grace As mercie does.

1605.  Journ. Earl Nottingh., in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 553. Dukes of especial name, bearing divers ceremonies likewise; as the Salera or salt borne by one, the taper of wax by another, the chrism by another.

1709.  Strype, Ann. Ref., xliv. 454. The ceremonies of cap and surplice.

  † 5.  A portent, omen: (drawn from the performance of some rite). Obs.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., II. i. 197. He is Superstitious growne of late, Quite from the maine Opinion he held once, Of Fantasie, of Dreames, and Ceremonies. Ibid., II. ii. 13. I neuer stood on Ceremonies, Yet now they fright me.

  6.  Master of the ceremonies: the person who superintends the ceremonies observed in a place of state or on some public occasion.

1662.  Gerbier, Princ. (1665), Ded. My place of Master of the Ceremonies, which the King confirmed unto me during my life.

1748.  Smollett, Rod. Rand., lv. Mr. Nash … commonly attends in this place … as master of the ceremonies.

1798.  Jane Austen, Northang. Abb., I. iii. The master of the ceremonies introduced to her a very gentlemanlike young man as a partner.

1888.  Court Guide, H. M. Household, Master of Ceremonies. General Sir F. Seymour.

  7.  Comb., as ceremony-monger.

1681.  in Roxb. Ball. (1886), VI. 3. A Ceremony-Monger, who rails at Dissenters, And damps Non-Conformists in the Pulpit he enters.

1710.  Answ. Sacheverell’s Serm., 6. The rigid Ceremony-mongers did hate the Religious part of the Nation.