# congee
## English
### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈkɑnd͡ʒi/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɒndʒiː/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Homophone: kanji (US)

### Etymology 1

From late Middle English congie, from Old French congié, congiet (modern French congé), from Latin commeātus (“passage, permission to leave”), from commeō (“I go and come”), from con- + meō (“I go, I pass”). Figurative senses generally borrowed from developments in French congé.

#### Alternative forms

* conge [16th–17th c.]
* congé [from 18th c.]

#### Noun

congee (countable and uncountable, plural congees)
* Leave, formal permission for some action, (originally and particularly):
** (obsolete) Formal permission to leave; a passport.
* (obsolete) Formal dismissal; (figurative) any dismissal; (originally & particularly humorously ironic) abrupt dismissal without ceremony.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:So courteous conge both did giue and take, With right hands plighted, pledges of good will.
* (obsolete) Formal leavetaking; (figurative) any farewell.
* (obsolete, Scotland) A fee paid to make another go away, (particularly) alms to a persistent beggar.
* (archaic) A bow, curtsey, or other gesture (originally) made at departure but (later) including at greeting or in obeissance or respect.
** 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:As salutations, reverences, or conges, by which some doe often purchase the honour, (but wrongfully) to be humble, lowly, and courteous […].
** 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 96, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:So saying, he bowed with a thousand apish congês, and presented his paper to Peregrine […] .
** 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:“My daughter Rebecca, so please your Grace,” answered Isaac, with a low congee, nothing embarrassed by the Prince’s salutation, in which, however, there was at least as much mockery as courtesy.
** 1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume I, page 23:His speech thus spake the Moor, and took his leave, he and his meiny where the bátels lay: formal farewells to chief and crews he gave, exchanging congees with due courtesy.

##### Derived terms

* give congee
* take congee

#### Verb

congee (third-person singular simple present congees, present participle congeeing, simple past and past participle congeed)
* (archaic) To give congee, (particularly)
** (obsolete, transitive) To give formal permission to leave; to dismiss.
** (obsolete, transitive) To give formal permission to do something; to license.
* (archaic) To take congee: to leave ceremoniously.
* (archaic) To make a congee: to bow, curtsey, etc., (particularly dialectal) while leaving; (figuratively) to make obeissance, show respect, or defer to someone or something.

### Etymology 2

From Tamil கஞ்சி (kañci) or another Dravidian language such as Malayalam കഞ്ഞി (kaññi) (ultimately from Proto-Dravidian *kañci), possibly via Portuguese canje.

#### Alternative forms

* conjee

#### Noun

congee (usually uncountable, plural congees)
* (Asian cooking) A type of thick rice porridge or soup, sometimes prepared with vegetables and/or meat.
** 2022, Ling Ma, “Peking Duck”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:In a past life in Fuzhou, it represented some reality other than the one of daily congee and pickled turnips, cabbage and boiled rip soup.

##### Synonyms

* rice porridge, rice congee; porridge, zhou (Chinese contexts); jook, juk (Cantonese & Korean contexts)

##### Derived terms

* Congee Festival
* congee house
* Laba congee
* rice congee

##### Translations
#### See also

* (Portuguese): canja

#### See also

* Thesaurus:dim sum

#### References

* ↑ Yule, Henry, Sir (1903) Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive.‎: “It is from the Tamil kanjī, 'boilings.'”
* ↑ “conjee”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

### References

* "congee | congé, n.²" & "v." in the Oxford English Dictionary, 1891.

### Anagrams

* negoce