obeisance

• obeisaunce, obeissance, abaisance (obsolete)

Middle English obeisaunce (“obedience, obeisance”), from Old French obeïssance, derived from obeïssant (“obedient”), participle of obeïr (“to obey”), from Latin oboedire, obedire; ob- (“to, for”) + audire (“to hear”). Cognate with obedience.

• IPA^(key): /oʊˈbeɪsəns/, /oʊˈbiːsəns/, /əˈbeɪsəns/, /əˈbiːsəns/
• Hyphenation: o‧bei‧sance
• Rhymes: -eɪsəns

• Audio (US)

  (file)

obeisance (countable and uncountable, plural obeisances)

1. Demonstration of an obedient attitude, especially by bowing deeply; a deep bow which demonstrates such an attitude.
   • 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven":

     Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

     In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;

     Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

     But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door —

     Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door —

     Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

   • 1915, Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, Fifty-One Tales:

     But looking upwards in the blaze of the moon I suddenly saw colossi sitting near, and towering up and blotting out the stars and filling the night with blackness; and at those idols’ feet I saw praying and making obeisance kings and the days that are and all times and all cities and all nations and all their gods.

   • 1962, J. L. Austin, How To Do Things With Words (OUP paperback edition), p. 69:

     The situation in the case of actions which are non-linguistic but similar to performative utterances in that they are the performance of a conventional action (here ritual or ceremonial) is rather like this: suppose I bow deeply before you; it might not be clear whether I am doing obeisance to you or, say, stooping to observe the flora or to ease my indigestion.

2. An obedient attitude.

• Usually in the phrases do obeisance or make obeisance.

• kiss someone's ring