obeisance

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 26, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>obeisance</strong> &#149; \oh-BEE-sunss\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>1 :</strong> a movement of the body made in token of respect or submission <strong>:</strong> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bow#h2">bow</a></p> <p><strong>2 :</strong> acknowledgment of another's superiority or importance <strong>:</strong> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homage">homage</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Even with the smartphone's on-purpose designed-in distraction notification architecture, our prostration at their non-human feet is the real issue. Our <em>obeisance</em> demotes the advanced human, and we pretend it doesn't. We don't take charge of our attention. Our little robots do. And we caress them." — <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/oct/24/let-me-finish-how-to-stop-interrupting-and-change-the-world">Nancy Kline, <em>The Guardian</em> (UK), 24 Oct. 2020</a></p> <p>"She's beloved by Gen-Z (when I interviewed a group of grade 12 girls earlier this year, they said her name with the kind of breathless <em>obeisance</em> typically reserved for Taylor Swift)…." — <a href="https://www.thestar.com/life/fashion_style/2020/09/18/please-leave-aocs-birkenstocks-alone.html">Liz Guber, <em>The Toronto Star</em>, 18 Sep. 2020</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>When it first appeared in English in the 14th century, <em>obeisance</em> shared the same meaning as <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obedience">obedience</a></em>. This makes sense given that <em>obeisance</em> can be traced back to the Anglo-French <em>obeir</em>, a verb meaning "to obey" that is also an ancestor of English's <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obey">obey</a></em>. The other