Dedicacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A solemn ceremony setting apart a church or shrine for sacred use ; the wholehearted devotion of a person to a cause, duty, or faith
2. The ritual of consecrating a church or holy place to worship ; the act of giving oneself earnestly to a purpose or belief
3. Formal consecration of a sacred building for religious service ; sincere commitment and loyalty a person shows toward a task or ideal

Etymology: "Dedicacioun" is the Middle English form of a word that came into English from Old French "dedicacion," itself from Latin "dedicatio," a noun from "dedicare," meaning "to devote" or "to proclaim solemnly." The Latin root combines "de-," meaning "down" or "completely," with "dicare," "to make known" or "to declare," which also gave English "dedicate" and "indicate." In medieval English, the word was used for the solemn ceremony by which a church was set apart for sacred worship, a rite that often included the bishop's blessing and sometimes the marking of the building's walls with crosses. The original sense was thus one of formal public proclamation: the building was being declared, before witnesses, to belong to God. Early English writers used the term for this consecration of a church, and its Middle English spelling shows the French influence in the "-ioun" ending.