coronation

See also: Coronation and coronâtion

English
WOTD – 6 May 2023

Etymology
Catarino Veneziano, Incoronazione della Vergine (Coronation of the Virgin, 1375; sense 1).[n 1]
Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, in a detail from an official portrait taken on her coronation day (sense 2), 2 June 1953, by Cecil Beaton.

From Late Middle English coronacion, coronacioun (“crowning of a sovereign or his consort; powers conferred by this ceremony; crowning of the Virgin Mary; (figuratively) placing of a crown of thorns on Jesus; act of rewarding a person with eternal life, happiness, honour, etc.”) [and other forms],[1] borrowed from Anglo-Norman coronacion and Old French coronacion, coronation, from Late Latin *corōnātiōnem, from Latin corōnō (“to coronate, crown (with a crown, garland, etc.)”)[2] + -ātiōnem (suffix forming nouns relating to actions or their results). Corōnō is derived from corōna (“garland, wreath; crown”).

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kɒɹəˈneɪʃn̩/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˌkɔɹəˈneɪʃ(ə)n/, /ˌkɑ-/
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən
  • Hyphenation: co‧ro‧nat‧ion

Noun

coronation (plural coronations)

  1. (also attributively) An act of investing with a crown; a crowning.
    • 1612, Thomas Taylor, “A Commentary upon the Epistle of St. Paul Written to Titus. [Second Chapter.]”, in The Works of the Judicious and Learned Divine Thomas Taylor […], volume II, London: […] Tho[mas] Ratcliffe, for John Bartlet the Elder, […], published 1659, →OCLC, page 352:
      [A]nd if vvee be Spouſes of this Bridegroom [Jesus], vvee cannot but (as vvee are exhorted) rejoyce in that the marriage of the Lambe is come, and the day of our ovvn coronation vvith an incorruptible Crovvn of glory.
  2. (specifically, also attributively) An act or the ceremony of formally investing a sovereign or the sovereign's consort with a crown and other insignia of royalty, on or shortly after their accession to the sovereignty.
    Synonyms: crowning, (obsolete) crownment, (obsolete, rare) sacration
    King Charles III’s coronation is to be much less elaborate compared to his mother’s.
    • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 15, column 1:
      Some reaſons of this double Corronation / I haue poſſeſſt you vvith, and thinke them ſtrong.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
      [John] Fal[staff]. VVhat diſeaſe haſt thou? / [Peter] Bul[lcalf]. A horſon cold ſir, a cough ſir, vvhich I cought vvith ringing in the Kings affaires vpon his coronation day ſir.
    • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 223, column 1:
      [T]he Lady Anne, / VVhom the King hath in ſecrecie long married, / This day vvas vievv'd in open, as his Queene, / Going to Chappell; and the voyce is novv / Onely about her Corronation.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Postscript”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 124:
      It is well known that at the coronation of kings and queens, even modern ones, a certain curious process of seasoning them for their functions is gone through. […] Certain I am, however, that a king's head is solemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad. […] But the only thing to be considered here, is this—what kind of oil is used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear's oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil. What then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured, unpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils? Think of that, ye loyal Britons! we whalemen supply your kings and queens with coronation stuff!
    • 1856, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Religion”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, pages 219–220:
      [George Friederic] Handel's coronation anthem, God save the King, was played by Dr. Camidge [i.e., John Camidge II] on the organ, with sublime effect. The minister and the music were made for each other.
    • c. 1909 (date written; published 1934), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “A Collier’s Friday Night”, in Three Plays: A Collier’s Friday Night, The Daughter-in-Law, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1969, →OCLC, act I, page 19:
      Over the mantelpiece, which is high, with brass candlesticks and two ‘Coronation’ tumblers in enamel, hangs a picture of Venice, from one of [William Thomas] Stead’s Christmas Numbers – nevertheless, satisfactory enough.
    • 2023 May 6, Sean Coughlan, “Coronation: King Charles and Queen Camilla Crowned in Historic Ceremony”, in BBC News‎, archived from the original on 2023-05-06:
      King Charles [III] and Queen Camilla have been crowned on a historic day of pageantry, capped by cheering by crowds in front of Buckingham Palace. Thousands packed the Mall despite the rain, after a deeply religious Coronation service at Westminster Abbey and a huge procession through London. […] The Coronation did not formally change the King's status. Charles became King of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms in September, when his mother Queen Elizabeth II died after 70 years on the throne. […] This time, the ceremony emphasised diversity and inclusion, with more multi-faith elements than any previous coronation, with contributions from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh representatives.
  3. (figuratively)
    1. A completion or culmination of something.
    2. A success in the face of little or no opposition.
  4. (board games, rare) In the game of checkers or draughts: the act of turning a checker into a king when it has reached the farthest row forward.
    • 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “The R. Wilfer Family”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, book the first (The Cup and the Lip), page 27:
      Here, the huffing of Miss Bella and the loss of three of her men at a swoop, aggravated by the coronation of an opponent, led to that young lady's jerking the draught-board and pieces off the table: which her sister went down on her knees to pick up.

Derived terms

Translations
completion or culmination of something — see completion,‎ culmination

See also

Notes
  1. From the collection of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, Italy.

References
  1. “coronāciǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. “coronation, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “coronation, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams
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