obeisance

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English obeisaunce,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman obeisance and Middle French obeissance,^[6] from Old French obeissant (“obeying”), the present participle of obeir (“to obey”),^[6][7][5][8] from Latin oboediō (“to obey”),^[5][4] itself from ob- (“to”) and audiō (“to listen, hear”).^[4] The verb is the source of obey and is related to obedience.^[4][9] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1280–1307, for obedience, homage and authority.^[10] Middle English also had forms such as abeisans and nobbecians, the second of which the OED explains by a wrong division of words.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of obeying: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[6][5] The Oxford Dictionary of English also gives "obedience" as the first sense.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant the same as obedience, a use that ended by 1660.^[6][12] In the late 14th century it passed to homage and deference, about 1390 in Gower,^[6] and to the bodily gesture of a bow or curtsy, before 1393 in the same poet.^[6][4] This last sense was not usual in French.^[6][13] The OED notes that Godefroy has a single 16th-century example, with none in Old French, and it compares abaisance.^[6] Weekley puts the English sense down to confusion with that word,^[13] Etymonline to the influence of abase,^[4] and Johnson (1755) thought obeisance simply a corruption of abaisance.^[14] The word also had the meanings "authority" (before 1393 to 1678) and "the district someone rules" (1419 to 1616),^[6] and Anglo-Norman also had the first of these.^[10] From 1608 homage could be paid to a thing or an idea as well as to a person.^[6] In Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire dialect, obeisance or ’beisance was still a bow or curtsey around 1900, and Lincolnshire used it as a verb.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1382 – the action of obeying; obedience (obsolete by 1660).^[6][5]
• c. 1390 – homage or submission to a person in authority.^[6]
• before 1393 – a gesture of submission or respect, a bow or curtsy.^[6]
• before 1393 – authority, rule (obsolete by 1678).^[6]
• 1419 – the district under a person's rule (obsolete by 1616).^[6]
• before 1450 – a company of servants (obsolete by 1486).^[6]
• 1608 – homage paid to a thing, quality or idea.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bow, curtsy or other movement of the body that shows submission or respect: He made a deep obeisance before the throne.^{[16][3][12][6]}
2. An attitude of respect or submission; homage, deference, also toward a thing or idea: They paid obeisance to the new fashion.^[16][3][6]
3. (obsolete, 1382–1660) Obedience.^[6][3][12]
4. (obsolete, 1393–1678) Authority or rule; the area under someone's rule.^[6][12]

Word family

• obeisant
• obeisantly

Related words

• obey
• obedience
• abase
• abaisance

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins