Invitacioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A formal request or summons asking someone to attend a gathering, feast, or occasion, as used in Middle English
2. An archaic term for a polite call or summons extending an offer to join a feast, meeting, or other occasion
3. The Middle English word for a courteous bidding or appeal urging a person to come along to some event

Etymology: Middle English "invitacioun" is the form that became modern "invitation," and it entered English in the late 1300s, borrowed from Old French "invitacion," which in turn came from Latin "invitatio," a noun formed from the verb "invitare," meaning to invite or summon. The Latin verb is usually linked to "invitus," meaning unwilling or reluctant, though the exact connection is debated among scholars, and the older sense seems to have carried a note of a formal, sometimes pressing, summons rather than a casual request. Medieval English spellings were far from settled, so "invitacioun" appears alongside variants such as "envitacion," with the "-cioun" ending reflecting the French pattern of "-tion" words that came through Old French. The "-tion" suffix itself was a standard Latin device for turning verbs into nouns of action, so an invitation is, at root, the act of calling someone in.