Windows and Basements?

Today begins a second year of this blog. When I began, I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough words to last a year. My initial list was shy of 50, and today’s words finish the first 53 sets of words. I now have a list of 96 groups, of which 16 remain to do, with a number of words still not grouped. So I will continue on for a while yet. I will not hold the blog in abeyance but will instead pay obeisance to my blog muse and continue.


Which takes us to our words for today: abeyance and obeisance. I grouped these two together not because they are often used erroneously one for the other, but because they have the [vowel]-b-[long a sound]-ance formation to them.

These are also words associated with Christmas in different ways. Often conflicts and wars are held in abeyance for the observance of Christmas. In some wars the opposing sides actually shared festivities during the Christmas truce before resuming the battles the next day. Abeyance (which didn’t even make it on the first two pages of my dictionary) is a noun that means temporary suspension, as an activity or function. It also is used in law to mean “a state of not having been determined or settled, as of lands the present ownership of which has not been established.”

Abeyance comes to English in the 1520s from Anglo-French (abeiance) which came down from Old French where it was spelled abeance, when it meant expectation. That meaning came from the prefix a- that meant to or at, and bayer (sometimes spelled without the y) that meant to gape, be open, or wait expectantly. The Old French (and you know who you are) got it from Gaulish which we think was batare (although etymonline.com says batare is Latin).

The root word in Old French, baer or bayer, is the source for our usage in describing a window that allows someone to sit on a window box and wait expectantly for the arrival of someone – a bay window.

Obeisance is most easily understood in connection with Christmas by saying the Magi came to pay obeisance to Jesus. Another noun, it refers to a gesture of respect or reverence, such as a bow, curtsy, etc. It also means the attitude shown by this, as in homage or deference. I used this at work once and neither of two very intelligent people I greatly respect had heard of the word.

It comes from the Middle English word obeisaunce, which came from Old French in the late 14th century where it was obeissance, a form of obeissant which is itself the present participle of obeir, which meant obey. The Old French got it from the Latin word oboedire, from which we got the word obey. It was at one time spelled abeisance, which was confused with the French word for abasement (not a basement), so the spelling with an initial o became preeminent. It wasn’t until its arrival in English that its sense of paying respect or bowing was included.

So I hope you were obeisant yesterday and for the future I will not keep this blog in abeyance.