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A.Word.A.Day--obsequy

This week's theme: Red-herring words

obsequy (OB-si-kwee)

noun: A funeral rite or ceremony.

[From Middle English obsequie, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin obsequiae, alteration (after Latin exsequiae, funeral rites) of Latin obsequia, plural of obsequium (compliance).]

"When Anthony Powell died, in March of last year, at the age of ninety-four, the New York Times Book Review devoted a Bookend column to the obsequy."
Christopher Hitchens; An Omnivorous Curiosity; The Atlantic Monthly (Boston); Jun 2001.

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