congee

Leave, formal permission for some action, (originally and particularly):

Noun

  1. Leave, formal permission for some action, (originally and particularly):

    1. (obsolete) Formal permission to leave; a passport.

  2. Formal dismissal; (figurative) any dismissal; (originally & particularly humorously ironic) abrupt dismissal without ceremony.
    • So courteous conge both did giue and take, With right hands plighted, pledges of good will. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  3. Formal leavetaking; (figurative) any farewell.
  4. A fee paid to make another go away, (particularly) alms to a persistent beggar.
  5. A bow, curtsey, or other gesture (originally) made at departure but (later) including at greeting or in obeissance or respect.
    • As salutations, reverences, or conges, by which some doe often purchase the honour, (but wrongfully) to be humble, lowly, and courteous[…]. - 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes...
    • … I therefore, at this time, shall only add this advice to you, under and by the leave of my lord;’ (and with that he made Diabolus a very low congee;) … - 1682, John Bunyan, The Holy War:
    • So saying, he bowed with a thousand apish congês, and presented his paper to Peregrine […]. - 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 96, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […],...

Origin

From late Middle English congie, from Old French congié, congiet (modern French congé), from Latin commeātus (“passage, permission to leave”), from commeō (“to go and come”), from con- + meō (“to go, to pass”). Figurative senses generally borrowed from developments in French congé.

Forms

congees conge congé

Derived

give congee take congee

Noun Entry 2

  1. A type of thick rice porridge or soup, sometimes prepared with vegetables and/or meat.
    • In a past life in Fuzhou, it represented some reality other than the one of daily congee and pickled turnips, cabbage and boiled rip soup. - 2022, Ling Ma, “Peking Duck”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and...

Origin

From Tamil கஞ்சி (kañci) or another Dravidian language such as Malayalam കഞ്ഞി (kaññi) (ultimately from Proto-Dravidian *kañci), possibly via Portuguese canje.

Forms

congees conjee

Synonyms

rice porridge rice congee porridge zhou jook juk

Related

canja dim sum

Derived

Congee Festival congee house Laba congee rice congee

Verb

  1. To give congee, (particularly)

    1. (obsolete, transitive) To give formal permission to leave; to dismiss.

    2. (obsolete, transitive) To give formal permission to do something; to license.

  2. To take congee: to leave ceremoniously.
  3. To make a congee: to bow, curtsey, etc., (particularly dialectal) while leaving; (figuratively) to make obeissance, show respect, or defer to someone or something.

Forms

congees congeeing congeed conge congé