different between ceremony vs potlatch

English

Alternative forms

• cæremony, cærimony (both archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English cerymonye, from Latin caerimonia or caeremonia, later often cerimonia (“sacredness, reverence, a sacred rite”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s???m?ni/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s???mo?ni/
• Hyphenation: cer?e?mo?ny

Noun

ceremony (plural ceremonies)

1. A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book Six, Canto 8, pp. 463-464,^[1]

     To whom the Priest with naked armes full net

     Approching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet,

     Gan mutter close a certaine secret charme,

     With other diuelish ceremonies met:

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Numbers 9:3,^[2]

     In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep [the passover] in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

   • 1881, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, London: Macmillan, Volume I, Chapter 1, p. 1,^[3]

     Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.

2. An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.

   a graduation ceremony, an opening ceremony

3. (uncountable) A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act III, Scene 4,^[4]

     […] to feed were best at home;

     From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;

     Meeting were bare without it.

   • 1928, W. Somerset Maugham, “Miss King” in Ashenden, New York: Avon, 1943, p. 37,^[5]

     Monsieur Bridet, notwithstanding his costume and his evident harrassment, found in himself the presence of mind to remain the attentive manager, and with ceremony effected the proper introduction.

   • 1959, C. S. Forester, Hunting the Bismarck, London: Michael Joseph,^[6]

     They went into the bars and interrupted the drinking, hustling the men out without ceremony.

4. (uncountable) Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 752-756,^[7]

     Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command

     Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony

     And trumpet’s sound, throughout the host proclaim

     A solemn council forthwith to be held

     At Pandemonium […]

   • 1829, Washington Irving, A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, Volume II, Chapter 46, p. 254,^[8]

     Immediately after her arrival, the queen rode forth to survey the camp and its environs: wherever she went, she was attended by a splendid retinue; and all the commanders vied with each other, in the pomp and ceremony with which they received her.

5. (obsolete) An accessory or object associated with a ritual.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 1,^[9]

     […] his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man […]

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene 2,^[10]

     […] Well, believe this,

     No ceremony that to great ones ’longs,

     Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,

     The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,

     Become them with one half so good a grace

     As mercy does.

6. (obsolete) An omen or portent.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 1,^[11]

     For he is superstitious grown of late,

     Quite from the main opinion he held once

     Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 2,^[12]

     Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,

     Yet now they fright me.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• ceremony in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ceremony at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “ceremony”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• ceremony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Middle English

Noun

ceremony

1. Alternative form of cerymonye

English

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Chinook Jargon potlatch, pátla? (“to give; gift; gift-giving ceremony, potlatch”), from Nootka Jargon pa'chatle, pa'ch??tle, pah-chilt (“to give, give me”), from Nootka p?a?i? (“to give a gift during a potlatch ceremony”).

Sense 1 of the verb (“to give; especially, to give a a gift during a potlatch ceremony”) is borrowed from Chinook Jargon potlatch, pátla? (see above); sense 2 (“to carry out or take part in a potlatch ceremony”) is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p?tlæt?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p?t?læt?/
• Hyphenation: pot?latch

Noun

potlatch (usually uncountable, plural potlatches)

1. (Canada, US, also figuratively) A ceremony amongst certain indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in which gifts are bestowed upon guests and personal property is destroyed in a show of generosity and wealth.
2. (US, chiefly Alaska) A communal meal to which guests bring dishes to share; a potluck.

   Synonym: (Britain, dialectal) fuddle

Alternative forms

• potlach
• potlache (dated)

Derived terms

• potlatcher

Translations

Verb

potlatch (third-person singular simple present potlatches, present participle potlatching, simple past and past participle potlatched)

1. (transitive) To give; especially, to give as a gift during a potlatch ceremony.
2. (intransitive) To carry out or take part in a potlatch ceremony.

Derived terms

• potlatching (noun)

Translations

References

Further reading

• potlatch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Chinook Jargon

Etymology

From Nootka p?a?i? (“to give in ceremony”).

Noun

potlatch

1. gift
2. giving
3. gift-feast, potlatch

Verb

potlatch

1. to give, receive

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Chinook Jargon potlatch (“gift”), from Nootka p?a?i? (“to give in ceremony”).

Noun

potlatch m (plural potlatchs)

1. potlatch

Further reading

• “potlatch” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).