Word of the Day
: August 20, 2015obeisance
playWhat It Means
1 : a movement of the body made in token of respect or submission : bow
2 : acknowledgment of another's superiority or importance : homage
obeisance in Context
"They took their hats off and made obeisance and many signs, which however, I could not understand any more than I could their spoken language …" - Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897
"College presidents and school officials frequently explain their obeisance to their athletic departments by saying that without big-time sports programs, they'd never get any money out of their alumni." - Murray A. Sperber, The Washington Post, March 15, 2015
Did You Know?
When it first appeared in English in the late 14th century, obeisance shared the same meaning as obedience. This makes sense given that obeisance can be traced back to the Anglo-French verb obeir, which means "to obey" and is also an ancestor of our word obey. The other senses of obeisance also date from the 14th century, but they have stood the test of time whereas the obedience sense is now obsolete.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Vocabulary
What word of Arabic origin begins with "s" and refers to an obeisance performed by bowing very low and placing the right palm on the forehead? The answer is …
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