ceremonious

From Middle French cérémonieux, from Late Latin caerimoniosus, from Latin caerimonia, equivalent to ceremony +‎ -ous.

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• Rhymes: -əʊniəs

ceremonious (comparative more ceremonious, superlative most ceremonious)

1. Fond of ceremony, ritual or strict etiquette; punctilious
   • 1609, Thomas Dekker, “Lanthorne and Candle-light. Or, The Bell-man’s Second Nights-walke. The Second Edition, : To the Verry Worthy Gentleman Maister Francis Mustian of Peckam”, in Alexander B Grosart, editor, The Non-dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker.  (The Huth Library), volume III, London, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire: [Hazell, Watson, & Viney] for private circulation only, published 1885, →OCLC, page 177:

     ome Writers do almoſt nothing contrary to yͤ cuſtome, and ſome by vertue of that Priviledge, dare doe any thing. I am neither of that firſt order, nor of this laſt. The one is too fondly-ceremonious, the other too impudently audacious.

   • 1958, C. S. Lewis, chapter III, in Reflections on the Psalms, Harcourt Brace & Co., published 1986, page 23:

     Ancient and oriental cultures are in many ways more conventional, more ceremonious, and more courteous than our own.

2. Characterized by ceremony or rigid formality
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     O, the sacrifice! / How ceremonious, solemn and unearthly / It was i' the offering!

   • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XVII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:

     Captain Vere advanced to meet him, […] and interrupting the other's wonted ceremonious salutation, said, "Nay, tell me how it is with yonder man," […]