ceremonious

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Audio (file)

Adjective

ceremonious (comparative more ceremonious, superlative most ceremonious)

Fond of ceremony, ritual or strict etiquette; punctilious
- 1609, Thomas Dekker, “Lanthorne and Candle-light. Or, The Bell-man’s Second Nights-walke. […] The Second Edition, […]: To the Verry Worthy Gentleman Maister Francis Mustian of Peckam”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Non-dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker. […] (The Huth Library), volume III, London; Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: […] [Hazell, Watson, & Viney] for private circulation only, published 1885, OCLC 4797086, page 177:
  [S]ome Writers do almoſt nothing contrary to yͤ 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.
Characterized by ceremony or rigid formality
- c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] 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!
- 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XVII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, OCLC 639975898:
  Captain Vere advanced to meet him, […] and interrupting the other's wonted ceremonious salutation, said, "Nay, tell me how it is with yonder man," […]

Derived terms

ceremoniously
ceremoniousness
unceremonious