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exequy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
exequy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
exequy in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
exequy you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
A back-formation from exequies, from Middle English exequies, from Old French exequies, from Latin exsequiās, accusative of exsequiae (“a funeral, seeing-off procession”).
Pronunciation
Noun
exequy (plural exequies)
- (obsolete, now only in plural) Funeral rites.
1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :But yet, before we go, let’s not forget
The noble Duke of Bedford late deceased,
But see his exequies fulfill’d in Rouen:
- 1609, Douay–Rheims Bible, Old Testament, volume I (1635 reprint), “The Second Book of Samuel, which we cal the Second of Kings.”, chapter i, marginal note b, page 573:
- Exequies of Saul obſerued with mourning weeping and faſting.
1658, Thomas Browne, “Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall. . Chapter I”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, Together with The Garden of Cyrus, , London: Hen Brome , →OCLC, page 1:More ſerious conjectures finde ſome examples of ſepulture in Elephants, Cranes, the Sepulchrall Cells of Piſmires and practice of Bees; which civill ſociety carrieth out their dead, and hath exequies, if not interrments.
2000, Kate Atkinson, Emotionally Weird, Black Swan (2001), page 191:We were accelerating along the Perth Road at a speed much faster than is normally associated with exequies.