Processioning

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Moving forward in an orderly, often ceremonial, group formation; advancing through a sequence of stages or steps to complete a task; formally enacting a public or religious march
2. Progressing in a structured series, commonly as a formal parade; carrying out a set of actions or phases in a systematic way; participating in a collective movement usually for ritualistic purposes
3. Advancing together as a coordinated assembly, frequently for solemn observances; following a detailed procedure or method to achieve a result; engaging in a procession as part of a ceremonial event

Etymology: "Processioning" is the present participle of "procession," so its story is really the story of the noun. The root is Latin "prōcēdere," meaning "to move forward, advance, proceed," which also gave English "proceed." The Latin noun "prōcessiō" meant "a marching forward, an advance," and only in Late Latin did it come to mean a religious procession specifically. That ceremonial sense is the one the word carried when it arrived in English from Old French during the Middle English period. The sense of an advance through stages, as in processing a form or processing a batch of samples, is a later extension built on the same idea of steady forward movement. Each step in a sequence is a small advance, so a task run through a series of steps came to be described with the same verb as a ceremonial march.

Synonyms: marching, parading, advancing, moving, fileing

Antonyms: retreating, stopping, halting