obeisance

noun

Etymology: From Middle English obeisaunce (“obedience, obeisance”), from Old French obeïssance, derived from obeïssant (“obedient”), participle of obeïr (“to obey”), from Latin oboediō, obēdiō; ob- (“to, for”) + audiō (“to hear”). Cognate with obedience.

1. Demonstration of an obedient attitude, especially by bowing deeply; a deep bow which demonstrates such an attitude.

   “In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore; / Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;”

   “But looking upwards in the blaze of the moon I suddenly saw colossi sitting near, and towering up and blotting out the stars and filling the night with blackness; and at those idols’ feet I saw praying and making obeisance kings and the days that are and all times and all cities and all nations and all their gods.”

2. An obedient attitude.