obsequy

Etymology

From Latin obsequiī (“complaisant, yielding”), alteration of obsequia (“compliance”) (by confusion, in association with exsequia (“funeral rites”), from exsequī (“follow or accompany to the grave”)).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔbsɪ.kwiː/

Noun

obsequy (plural obsequies)

1. The last office for the dead.
2. (chiefly in the plural) A funeral rite or service.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knightes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished as William Thynne, editor, The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer, Newly Printed, with Diuers Addicions, which were Neuer in Printe before: With the Siege and Destruccion of the Worthy Citee of Thebes, Compiled by Ihon Lidgate, Monke of Berie. As in the Table More Plainly Dooeth Appere, London: Imprinted at London, by Ihon Kyngston, for Ihon Wight, dwellying in Poules Churchyarde, 1561, OCLC 932919585, folio I, verso, lines 133–135:

     And to the ladies he reſtored agayn / The bodies of her^{[sic, meaning their]} huſbandes that were ſlain / To done obſequies as tho was the giſe

   • 1919 — Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 13

     But, to-day, there were no obsequies to observe at all.