Dictionary

solemnize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English solempnisen, from Old French solemnisier, from Medieval Latin solemnizare, from Latin solemnis.

Meanings

1. (US, transitive) To make solemn, or official, through ceremony or legal act.
   • […] Upon the heads of all who ſate beneath, / Lords, Ladies, Captains, Councellors, or Prieſts, / Thir choice nobility and flower, not only / Of this but each Philiſtian City round / Met from all parts to ſolemnize this Feaſt. 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 95–96:
   • He now is gone to pꝛooue Coſmography, / And as I gueſſe, wil firſt ariue at Rome, / To ſee the Pope, and manner of his court, / And take ſome part of holy Peters feaſt, / That to this day is highly ſolemnizd. 1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature D, recto:
   • The couple chose to solemnize their relationship in a secular ceremony, instead of having a wedding.
   • Saint Luke declaring how Peter ſtood vp in the midſt of his Diſciples, did thereby deliuer an vnchangeable rule, that whatſoeuer is done in the Church ought to be done in the midſt of the church, and therefore not Baptiſme to be adminiſtred in one place, Mariage ſolemnized in an other, […] 1597, Richard Hooker, “Of gesture in praying, and of different places chosen to that purpose”, in J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], 2nd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, book V, section 30, page 249:
   • The great mysteries solemnised at Eleusis. 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 138:
2. To make grave, serious, and reverential.
   • September 27, 1873, John Campbell Shairp, "Wordsworth's Three Yarrows", in Every Saturday Wordsworth was solemnized and elevated by this his first look on Yarrow.
   • Every Israelite […] arose, solemnized his face, looked towards Jerusalem […] and prayed. 1880, Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ:

Forms

Deriveds

unsolemnize · solemnizable · solemnizer · resolemnize