It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for March 10th.

Today's word is Obescence, also pronounced Obacence, then spelled Obesean,

O B E-S-A-N-C-E.

Obescence is a synonym of the word homage that refers to an acknowledgement of another's importance or superiority.

Obescence can also mean a movement of the body such as a bow, showing respect for someone or something.

Here's the word used in a sentence from the News Gazette of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois by Jim Day.

Supreme Court rules establish specific guidelines by which these conferences must be conducted,

but compliance is rare and they are usually held in secret and undocumented.

The clandestine nature of 402 proceedings conflicts with the judiciary's general

obeisance to concepts of transparency and public accountability in criminal cases.

When it first appeared in English in the 14th century,

the word obeseence shared the same meaning as obedience.

This makes sense, given that obeisance can be traced back to the Anglo-French word

obey-Yir, a verb meaning to obey that is also an ancestor of the English word obey.

The other senses of obeisance also date from the 14th century,

but they have stood the test of time,

whereas the obedience sense is now obsolete.

Or is it? recent evidence suggests that obeisance is starting to be used

again as an often disparaging synonym of the word obedience for example a politician deemed too easily swayed by others may be said to have pledged obeisance

to party leaders or malign influences.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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