different between ceremonial vs athame

English

Alternative forms

• cæremonial (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English cerymonial, from Latin caerim?ni?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s????mo?ni?l/
• Hyphenation: cer?e?mo?ni?al

Adjective

ceremonial (comparative more ceremonial, superlative most ceremonial)

1. Of, relating to, or used in a ceremony.

   Synonyms: formal, ritual, ritualistic

   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act III, Scene 2,^[1]

     What mockery will it be

     To want the bridegroom when the priest attends

     To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage!

   • 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 179, 3 December, 1751, Volume 6, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, p. 53,^[2]

     His merit introduced him to splendid tables and elegant acquaintance, but he did not find himself always qualified to join in the conversation. He was distressed by civilities, which he knew not how to repay, and entangled in many ceremonial perplexities, from which his books and diagrams could not extricate him.

   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England, Paris: L. Baudry, Volume 1, Chapter 2, p. 116,^[3]

     […] this change in ceremonial observances and outward show was trifling when compared to that in the objects of worship […]

   • 1963, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, New York: Bantam, 1972, Chapter 15, p. 151,^[4]

     Philomena Guinea’s black Cadillac eased through the tight, five o’clock traffic like a ceremonial car.

2. (archaic) Observant of ceremony, ritual, or social forms.

   Synonym: ceremonious

   • c. 1593, John Donne, “Satyre I” in Poems, London: John Marriot, 1633, p. 326,^[5]

     Oh monstrous, superstitious puritan,

     Of refin’d manners, yet ceremoniall man,

   • 1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, London: Jacob Tonson, “The Tenth Satyr,” lines 56-57, p. 193,^[6]

     […] with dumb Pride, and a set formal Face,

     He moves, in the dull Ceremonial track,

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

ceremonial (countable and uncountable, plural ceremonials)

1. A ceremony, or series of ceremonies, prescribed by ritual.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 3, Book 17, Chapter 6, p. 257,^[7]

     Curt’sies, and the usual Ceremonials between Women who are Strangers to each other being past, Sophia said, ‘I have not the Pleasure to know you, Madam.’

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 5,^[8]

     Public ceremonies, such as ordinations, the installation of magistrates, and all that could give majesty to the forms in which a new government manifested itself to the people, were, as a matter of policy, marked by a stately and well-conducted ceremonial, and a sombre, but yet a studied magnificence.

   • 1972, Robertson Davies, The Manticore, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2015, Chapter 5,^[9]

     I have been in favour of ceremonial and patterns all my life, and I have no desire to break the funeral pattern.

Translations

Romanian

Etymology

From French cérémonial, from Latin caerimonialis.

Noun

ceremonial n (plural ceremoniale)

1. ceremonial

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin caerim?ni?lis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /?e?emo?njal/, [?e.?e.mo?njal]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /se?emo?njal/, [se.?e.mo?njal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Hyphenation: ce?re?mo?nial

Adjective

ceremonial (plural ceremoniales)

1. ceremonial

Related terms

• ceremonia

Further reading

• “ceremonial” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

English

Etymology

From the non-word arthame from a French manuscript. Arthame is either from a misreading of handwritten Italian arctrave, which is a variant of architrave (“main beam”), or from corruptions of the Medieval Latin word artavus (“quill-sharpening knife”). Artavus was also mistranslated into the non-word artauo in an Italian manuscript. The arthame was conflated with the cortel nero ("black knife") by the author Grillot de Givry in 1931, and that conflation was passed on to Gerald Gardner (the creator of Wicca).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??????.me?/, /?????.me?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /????.me?/, /????.me?/, /?æ.???me?/

Noun

athame (plural athames)

1. A ceremonial pointed knife or dagger, used especially in Wicca and other neopagan traditions and having a black handle with magical symbols on it. [from 20th c.]
   • James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions (page 22)

     The athame is a black-handled ritual knife—one of the most common distinguishing marks of the Neopagan Witch. Gerald Gardner, in Witchcraft Today, called the athame one of the three most essential tools of the Witch.

Alternative forms

• athamé

Translations

Anagrams

• Tehama, hamate