ceremonious

From Middle French cérémonieux, from Late Latin caerimoniosus, from Latin caerimonia.

ceremonious (comparative more ceremonious, superlative most ceremonious)

1. Fond of ceremony, ritual or strict etiquette; punctilious
   • 1608, Thomas Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-Light in The Guls Hornbook and The Belman of London, J.M. Dent, 1936, p. 163,

     […] some Writers do almost nothing contrary to the custome, and some by vertue of that Priviledge, dare doe any thing. I am neither of that first order, nor of this last. The one is too fondly-ceremonious, the other too impudently audacious.

   • 1958, C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, Harcourt Brace & Co., 1986, Chapter III, p. 23,

     Ancient and oriental cultures are in many ways more conventional, more ceremonious, and more courteous than our own.

2. Characterized by ceremony or rigid formality
   • c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     O, the sacrifice! / How ceremonious, solemn and unearthly / It was i' the offering!

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 17,

     Captain Vere advanced to meet him, […] and interrupting the other's wonted ceremonious salutation, said, "Nay, tell me how it is with yonder man," […]

• ceremoniously
• ceremoniousness
• unceremonious