investiture

investiture

English

Sydney Prior Hall, The investiture of Haakon VII of Norway, 1906

Etymology

From Middle French investiture, from Medieval Latin investītūra, from investīre (“to clothe”).

Noun

investiture (countable and uncountable, plural investitures)

1. The act of investing, as with possession or power; formal bestowal or presentation of a possessory or prescriptive right.
   • 1882, Albert Mackey, “The Rite of Investiture”, in The Symbolism of Freemasonry:

     The rite of investiture, called, in the colloquially technical language of the order, the ceremony of clothing, brings us at once to the consideration of that well-known symbol of Freemasonry, the LAMB-SKIN APRON. This rite of investiture, or the placing upon the aspirant some garment, as an indication of his appropriate preparation for the ceremonies in which he was about to engage, prevailed in all the ancient initiations.

2. (specifically, chiefly historical) The formal installation or, generally, the appointment of a bishop, or (uncountable) bishops in general.
   • 1668, A Seasonable Vindication of the Supreme Authority and Jurisdiction of Christian Kings, Lords, Parliaments, as well over the Possessions, as Persons of Delinquent Prelates and Church-men, page 72:

     Raynelmus the 30. Bishop of Hereford receiving his investiture from King Henry the first, by the delivery of a Ring and Crosier, according to the Law and Custom of that Age, and afterwards resigning them into the Kings hands again to pleasure Anselme, against the Kings Prerogative, the King was so highly offended with him (as he had just cause) that he presently banished him the Realm, and seised his Temporalties.

   • 1958, Norman Cantor, Church, Kingship, and Lay Investiture in England, 1089–1135, page 157:

     […] it was apparent by the latter part of 1101 that only a sudden change of heart by Paschal would prevent a controversy over lay investiture in England similar to the dispute which had racked Germany for a quarter of a century.

   • 2009, Christian Frost, Time, Space, and Order: The Making of Medieval Salisbury, →ISBN, page 26:

     By the eleventh century, sacred kingship within the west was separated from the hierarchies of church rule. Investiture battles and power struggles between the two systems continued on for many centuries […]

3. That which invests or clothes; covering; vestment.

Translations

act of investing

Bulgarian: даване на власт (davane na vlast) Dutch: investituur (nl) f Finnish: sijoitus (fi), sijoittaminen (fi) French: investiture (fr) f German: Investitur f Italian: investitura (it) f Maori: whakaoatitanga Portuguese: investidura (pt) f Russian: please add this translation if you can Spanish: investidura (es) f

Further reading

• investiture in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• investiture in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “investiture”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• Investiture in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

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French

Etymology

Middle French, borrowed from Medieval Latin investītūra. Displaced Old French envesture.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.vɛs.ti.tyʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

investiture f (plural investitures)

1. investiture
2. (politics) inauguration

Further reading

• “investiture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Italian

Noun

investiture f

1. plural of investitura

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Latin

Participle

investītūre

1. vocative masculine singular of investītūrus