Noun: congee
| Singular | congee |
| Plural | congees |
Sample Sentences
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So courteous conge both did giue and take,
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With right hands plighted, pledges of good will. [1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:]
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As salutations, reverences, or conges, by which some doe often purchase the honour, (but wrongfully) to be humble, lowly, and courteous[…]. [1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:]
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… I therefore, at this time, shall only add this advice to you, under and by the leave of my lord;’ (and with that he made Diabolus a very low congee;) … [1682, John Bunyan, The Holy War:]
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So saying, he bowed with a thousand apish congês, and presented his paper to Peregrine […]. [1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 96, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:]
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“My daughter Rebecca, so please your Grace,” answered Isaac, with a low congee, nothing embarrassed by the Prince’s salutation, in which, however, there was at least as much mockery as courtesy. [1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:]
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His speech thus spake the Moor, and took his leave,
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he and his meiny where the bátels lay:
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formal farewells to chief and crews he gave,
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exchanging congees with due courtesy. [1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume I, page 23:]
Nouns inflected like congee
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From late Middle English congie, from Old French congié, congiet (modern French congé), from Latin commeātus (“passage, permission to leave”), from commeō (“to go and come”), from con- + meō (“to go, to pass”). Figurative senses generally borrowed from developments in French congé. See: Middle English Nouns '
congie', French Nouns '
congé', Latin Nouns '
commeātus', French Nouns '
congé'.