Word of the Day

: August 20, 2015

obeisance

noun oh-BEE-sunss

What 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.