different between exhibition vs ceremony

English

Etymology

From Old French exhibicion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ks??b???n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

exhibition (countable and uncountable, plural exhibitions)

1. An instance of exhibiting, or something exhibited.
2. A large-scale public showing of objects or products.

   There was an art exhibition on in the town hall.

   a boat exhibition

3. A public display, intentional or otherwise, generally characterised as negative, a shamfeul exhibition or a disgusting exhibition
4. (Britain) A financial award or prize given to a student (who becomes an exhibitioner) by a school or university, usually on the basis of academic merit.
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 352:

     He was a scholarship boy who had won an Exhibition to Oxford, and then, like so many others, had found himself thrown upon the slave market of pedagogy.

   • 2016, Jonathan Meades, ‘Inside Job’, Literary Review, November:

     Despite a couple of rustications, he gained an exhibition to Cambridge.

5. (sports) A game which does not impact the standings for any major cup or competition.

Derived terms

• exhibitionism
• exhibitionist
• make an exhibition of oneself
• Exhibition Road

Related terms

• exposition

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exhibiti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.zi.bi.sj??/

Noun

exhibition f (plural exhibitions)

1. (sports) exhibition, friendly
2. (document) presentation, production
3. showing off, outrageous behaviour

Derived terms

• match d'exhibition
• exhibitionnisme
• exhibitionniste

Further reading

• “exhibition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Alternative forms

• cæremony, cærimony (both archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English cerymonye, from Latin caerimonia or caeremonia, later often cerimonia (“sacredness, reverence, a sacred rite”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s???m?ni/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s???mo?ni/
• Hyphenation: cer?e?mo?ny

Noun

ceremony (plural ceremonies)

1. A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book Six, Canto 8, pp. 463-464,^[1]

     To whom the Priest with naked armes full net

     Approching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet,

     Gan mutter close a certaine secret charme,

     With other diuelish ceremonies met:

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Numbers 9:3,^[2]

     In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep [the passover] in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

   • 1881, Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, London: Macmillan, Volume I, Chapter 1, p. 1,^[3]

     Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.

2. An official gathering to celebrate, commemorate, or otherwise mark some event.

   a graduation ceremony, an opening ceremony

3. (uncountable) A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act III, Scene 4,^[4]

     […] to feed were best at home;

     From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;

     Meeting were bare without it.

   • 1928, W. Somerset Maugham, “Miss King” in Ashenden, New York: Avon, 1943, p. 37,^[5]

     Monsieur Bridet, notwithstanding his costume and his evident harrassment, found in himself the presence of mind to remain the attentive manager, and with ceremony effected the proper introduction.

   • 1959, C. S. Forester, Hunting the Bismarck, London: Michael Joseph,^[6]

     They went into the bars and interrupted the drinking, hustling the men out without ceremony.

4. (uncountable) Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 752-756,^[7]

     Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by command

     Of sovereign power, with awful ceremony

     And trumpet’s sound, throughout the host proclaim

     A solemn council forthwith to be held

     At Pandemonium […]

   • 1829, Washington Irving, A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, Volume II, Chapter 46, p. 254,^[8]

     Immediately after her arrival, the queen rode forth to survey the camp and its environs: wherever she went, she was attended by a splendid retinue; and all the commanders vied with each other, in the pomp and ceremony with which they received her.

5. (obsolete) An accessory or object associated with a ritual.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act IV, Scene 1,^[9]

     […] his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man […]

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act II, Scene 2,^[10]

     […] Well, believe this,

     No ceremony that to great ones ’longs,

     Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,

     The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,

     Become them with one half so good a grace

     As mercy does.

6. (obsolete) An omen or portent.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 1,^[11]

     For he is superstitious grown of late,

     Quite from the main opinion he held once

     Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene 2,^[12]

     Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,

     Yet now they fright me.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• ceremony in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ceremony at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “ceremony”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• ceremony in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Middle English

Noun

ceremony

1. Alternative form of cerymonye